Bharti Airtel upbeat on 3G spectrum auction prospects
17 Nov 2009
India's top mobile carrier, Bharti Airtel says it is confident the government would proceed on schedule with 3G spectrum auctions in January.
A pre-bid conference was held on Monday in the run-up to third generation (3G) spectrum auctions. The auctions have been twice delayed but seem to be on track for 14 January, as re-scheduled.
According to Bharti chief executive Manoj Kohli the meeting went well and their confidence was high. Kohli was speaking to Reuters in . He added that if everything went well, within a few weeks the company should get some spectrum.
He added that Bharti was still mulling on bidding for spectrum for WiMax, a stationary wireless technology with high-speed data transmission capabilities similar to 3G.
The WiMax spectrum is to be concurrently auctioned with 3G spectrum.
According to estimates, the Indian fast growth telecom market could notch up as many as 200 million users for 3G by 2014.
The wider mobile market is now getting increasingly competitive with the existing 11 national and regional players cutting rates to attract subscribers before new companies roll out services this year.
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