India's 3G telephony auction elicits international interest

Sunil Batra

Geneva, Oct 5 (PTI) India Monday said it has received
interest from international companies for launching high-speed
3G telephony services, auction of spectrum or radio waves for
which will be completed by this financial year.

"There has been interest from various foreign companies
in the planned 3G auction," Telecom Minister A Raja told
reporters here, exuding confidence that the auction of 3G and
Wi-Max spectrum would generate at least Rs 25,000 crore of
revenue for the Indian government.

"The successful 3G bidder wil be issued Universal Service
Licence (USL)... they will be eligible for 2G spectrum also,
as and when it is available," he said.

The minister further said that he had talks with telecom
ministers and officials from many other countries and all of
them were of the same opinion that telecom sector was one of
the least hit by the global financial meltdown.

"We are very confident that the government will raise at
least Rs 25,000 crore from the auction," Raja said.

Asked whether the 3G auction would meet the timeline,
Raja said: "Yes. By and large, we are moving as per the
timeline... It may get delayed by some time due to Christmas
vacation, but very positively it will be completed within this
financial year (ending March 2010)." MORE PTI SKB
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Asked about Defence Ministry's reluctance to speedily
vacate spectrum, used for its internal communication, Raja
said: "The Defence ministry has to respect the decision of the
Group of Ministers (GoM)."

However, no major delays are expected on account of
Defence Ministry's lethargy in releasing spectrum, as the
Department of Telecom has adequate spectrum to allocate at
least the initial 5Mhz to three players in a circle.

"We have 3G spectrum available in varying amounts in
various circles except Rajasthan, where there are no 3G radio
waves. Therefore, spectrum availability cannot halt the
auction process. Any release by Defence would be an additional
gain and will help in giving it to more players," a DoT
official had said recently.

On August 27, an empowered Group of Ministers fixed Rs
3,500 crore as reserve price for 3G spectrum and restricted
the number of players to five -- at least initially.

The eGoM also decided on a base price of Rs 1,750 crore
for pan-India WiMax (wireless internet) spectrum. PTI SKB
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