Radio waves ranging between frequency 2 to 4 GHz is known as the S band spectrum. This S-band spectrum is a part of the microwave band (0.3 to 300 GHz) of the electromagnetic spectrum. These spectrums are used by RADARs and communication satellites especially those used by the NASA to communicate with the space shuttles and all.
In this s-band spectrum scam ISRO launched two customer specific satellites and gave away 70MHz of its high-value S-band to a private company Devas multimedia private limited for commercial exploitation at a throwaway price of just over Rs.1000 crore without any competitive bidding.It is given for a lease period of over 20 years. The deal was between ISRO's commercial arm Antrix Corp and devas multi media. 30 years ago the Dos was given 150Mhz for satellite services both broadcast and mobile. 20Mhz was recently given to BSNL and MTNL at a cost of Rs.12,847 crore for 20Mhz.but devas got 70Mhz of this same band at just 1,000 crore.In other countries this band is sold through auction at billions of dollarsIn 2009, three operators together paid $1.53 billion for 90 MHz of radio band.
All thanks to that whistleblower who revealed this deal to the government.More over all this came into light after the 2G scam when a notice was made that how can this valued band be sold on just 1000 crore when the similar broadband spectrum was sold at 35000 crore.
Eventually The Antrix-devas deal was cancelled by the government.
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