The Central Vigilance Commission (CVC) has asked Department of Telecom to submit all the files related to the 3G services allotment to telecom operators after  finding evidences of  violations of license agreements.

The CVC has stepped in after the DoT ordered the errant companies to stop 3G services. Last week, telecom companies obtained stay order from Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) against the DoT order.

Telecom majors Airtel, Idea, Vodafone and Aircel were caught by DoT, and TRAI for “playing cartelisation” and offering 3G services in circles, where they don’t have licence to deliver 3G. These companies entered into an internal agreement with each other and offered 3G services where they do not have licences.

The mutual agreement entered between these companies were found illegal by TRAI and DoT. Another telecom major Tata Teleservices was also involved  in such activity, but later it  did course correction when  faced with objections from the regulators.

This activity of entering into mutually benefiting agreement was considered as a severe  violation of the licensing agreement. When DoT issued notice to these companies, all the heads of the telecom majors met Prime Minister Manmohan Sing arguing to condone the action and ratify their “mutually benefiting agreement.”

It is now alleged in the telecom circle that these telecom companies formed cartels during the 3G auction in order to cut down the competition.. Industry circles believe that such cartelisation must have created a loss of around `20,000 crores in the final auction figures.

Now the telecom companies are lobbying hard on the TDSAT stay order, which asked DoT to produce the copies of their “illegal mutually benefiting agreements”. According to companies, such production of the agreements would “hamper the business plans.”