Government issues LoIs to successful 3G bidders; spectrum allocation on 1 September

The government today said successful bidders would be allotted spectrum on 1 September, while broadband wireless access (BWA) airwaves would be allotted to the bid winners immediately. The government rejected criticism that faulty auction led to high prices by leading operators.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has already allotted letters of intent (LoI) to the 3G winners, while the successful BWA bidders would be given LOIs next week, telecom secretary P J Thomas said.

"While the overall proceeds from the auction for 3G and BWA spectrum at over Rs1,06,000 crore have exceeded all expectations, an equally important aspect is that the true market value of the spectrum was determined through an efficient and transparent process," Thomas said.

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator, which had won 13 out of 22 3G circles, had criticised the auction process and said, "We would like to point out that the auction format and severe spectrum shortage, along with ensuing policy uncertainty, drove the prices beyond reasonable levels. As a result, we could not achieve our objective of pan-Indian 3G footprint in this round."

Also, in case of BWA spectrum auction, the company said, "A combination of scarcity of slots and the auction format, once again, resulted in extremely high price levels."

Similar views had been voiced by several other operators, including Vodafone, which had pulled out of the auction process mid way citing irrational bidding.