3G spectrum allocation begins under amended rules

The government on Wednesday began allocating third-generation (3G) bandwidth to private mobile operators who won spectrum in bidding at unexpectedly high prices, after making certain necessary amendments to the licence terms. "We have started the allocation," a spokesman for the telecom ministry said.

The operators are authorised to use the spectrum for a period of 20 years from today, according to the amended licence conditions.

These also allow companies to offer 3G services till the validity of the spectrum even if their telecom licence expires before to that. The government has also imposed a roll-out obligation, under which the service providers would have to cover at least 90 per cent of the service areas in the metros within the next five years.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communication, Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular, Aircel and S Tel were the operators who had bagged 3G spectrum in the auction in May that fetched the government over Rs51,000 crore, apart from about Rs16,000 crore from the two state-owned telecom companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd.

The two public sector undertakings (PSUs) were awarded spectrum more than a year ago in view of their obligation to procure equipment through the cumbersome process of inviting tenders.

BSNL offers services throughout the country, except Delhi and Mumbai where MTNL is the operator. However, their 3G services have seen poor uptake so far.