Given how telecom firms invested R68,000 crore in bidding for 3G licences, and another R15,000-20,000 crore each in rolling out networks, it was never clear why the government, in 2011, decided to go after them and levy penalties for entering into

intra-circle roaming agreements with one another—while a penalty of R350 crore was imposed on Bharti Airtel, it was R550 crore for Vodafone and R300 crore for Idea.