Ministers' panel meet fails to clear air for 3G auction

A meeting of the empowered group of ministers (EGoM) today resolved the vexed issue of spectrum auction for third generation or 3G mobile services, but apparently failed to resolve the deadlock between the telecommunications and defence ministries over the release of spectrum by the latter.

The government plans to commence auction of 3G (third generation) spectrum from 14 January next year, but lack of clarity on the number of slots to be sold could derail the process.

The EGoM meeting was the second in three days. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, who heads the EGoM, had met telecom minister A Raja and defence minister A K Antony earlier this week but the two ministries failed to resolve the issue of vacating spectrum for 3G mobile telephony.

The defence ministry's position is that it does not have any idle spectrum, contrary to the department of telecommunications claim that defence has spectrum to spare. "DoT has said that they have 3G spectrum but the ministry of defence is not accepting it, as they are saying the radio frequency is being used by them and cannot be vacated," DoT sources said added.

Today's EGoM meet was attended by Sam Pitroda, advisor to the prime minister on public information infrastructure and innovations, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee, defence minister A K Antony, communications minister A Raja, and information and broadcasting minister Ambika Soni.

None of the members of the EGoM was willing to talk to media on the discussions at the meeting, but there were widespread speculations that the differences between DoT and the defence ministry remain unresolved.