A Rs. 600 crore deal, wherein the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) leased 60 Mhz of spectrum to little known Devas Multimedia five years ago is now under the scanner, reports the Economic Times, citing sources. We had written about Devas in the past, in 2008, when it received an approval from India's FIPB for raising $75.75 million from German major Deutsche Telekom, thus valuing the company at $443 million. At that time, the company didn't even have a website, and very little could have been ascertained about them, and what they were planning to do. The legitimacy of the deal is being questioned. Devas seeks to offer data services to mobile terminals - streaming video, audio, web access, on PC data cards, mobile phones, and vehicle-mounted devices. ET quotes anonymous executives offering two opposing sides to this issue of allocation of spectrum: - That ISRO was not authorized to lease out the spectrum, and a probe into the Devas deal began when demands were made for broadband spectrum in the 2.5 GHz band to be auctioned. - That Devas took a risk by leasing this spectrum, when no one else was willing to, and invested close to $300 million in order to launch services, and one can't penalize the company just because the value of its spectrum as appreciated. According to Devas' website: - It was founded by MG Chandrasekhar, and ISRO veteran - Has been funded by Deutsche Telekom, Columbia Capital and Telcom Ventures. - It has on its…
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