Criticising the telecom department for poor safeguards, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) has said that performance of Reliance Communications Ltd (RCL), Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL), Aircel and Vodafone regarding "commissioning of mobile services was very poor". Among the four companies, RCL and RTL were leading the list.

As per a CAG report, the service providers were to provide mobile services within two months of the commissioning of the infrastructure site by the IP as against 12,853 sites which were made ready by the IPs for provision of services, the service providers could provide services only from 6,992 sites (August 2012).

The report further stresses that BSNL was burdened with outstanding dues of Rs 123 crore from five companies – Reliance, Vodafone, Idea, Airtel and Aircel. Of the total of Rs 123 crore, Reliance had the major share with outstanding dues of Rs 78.10 crore (63.50%).