3G spectrum auction likely to be deferred to March: report

The much-awaited auction of spectrum for the roll-out of third generation mobile phone services is likely to be delayed by more than a month and may now commence from the first week of March next year. The schedule is expected to be announced soon.
 
Official sources said the auction process is likely to start in the last week of February or the first week of March. The revised schedule was being worked out taking into account the outcome of the last meeting of an empowered group of ministers during which the defence ministry was reported to have agreed to vacate spectrum.

Telecom minister A Raja had said last week that the auction would proceed according to schedule (14 January 2010) but with the Department of Telecom (DoT) yet to finalise details of notice inviting applications (NIA), this seems unlikely.

Officials say, it would take at the least five weeks after the fianlisation of NIA to initiate the auction process and considering the year-end and Christmas holidays, NIAs may be issued some time during the middle of January next year.

According to the government's estimate, the auction sale of 3G spectrum would generate over Rs25,000 crore. The government has fixed the reserve price at Rs3,500 crore for pan-Indian spectrum.

Despite the spectrum crunch, the government has decided to auction four slots in addition to the one each already allotted to two telecom PSUs, BSNL and MTNL.

Earlier, the DoT had expressed concern over delay in spectrum vacation by the defense ministry and had suggested in its eGoM meeting that only three slots be auctioned.