3G auction deferred yet again

The much awaited 3G auction, slated to begin 14 January, has been put off yet again. According to telecom minister A Raja, India had to finalise the schedule for third-generation wireless spectrum auction.

The government has not issued a notice inviting applications and Raja said today that some of the issues between defence ministry and the department of telecommunications had to be resolved. He added that either the chairman  (of the ministerial panel) would decide or another round of consultation may be held.

Meanwhile, in another development, the department of telecom's (DoT) has issued a draft notice for inviting applications (NIA) for the spectrum sale process that says the process would be limited to three private GSM operators.

CDMA operators on the other hand, the draft (NIA) states, would be limited to only one player per circle. The notice goes on to say that the sale of airwaves would not be held in six circles - Delhi, Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Punjab & Maharashtra.

On 21 December, a nine-member empowered group of ministers (EGoM), under finance minister Pranab Mukherjee had decided that these airwaves would be given to four successful private GSM bidders during the auction process and additionally one slot would be reserved for state-owned telcos - BSNL & MTNL.

According to media reports then, the EGoM, had decided that the airwaves would be given to all successful bidders only in August 2010, and that only a quarter of the bid amount would be payable this fiscal and the rest on allotment of spectrum.