3G auction delayed again

Telecom minister A Raja said the auction of airwaves to offer third-generation mobile services will be concluded by the end of the financial year, making it clear that the government will miss the December 7 date to hold the auctions originally scheduled for 2007. Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the ITU world summit here, Mr Raja also said various foreign companies have expressed interest in participating in the 3G auctions that will “generate at least Rs 25,000 crore of revenue for the Indian government. Mr Raja also confirmed that the successful 3G bidders will also be allotted 2G airwaves. “The successful 3G bidder will be issued a universal access service licence (UASL),” he said, adding that they will be allocated 2G spectrum “as and when it is available”. This was a major demand of foreign telecom companies looking to take part in the 3G auction that has been delayed several times since 2007 due to reasons ranging from infighting between ministries to the failure of the government and telecom regulator Trai to agree on terms of the auctions. DoT was slated to release the information memorandum (IM) that contains all the details of the auction including availability of radio frequencies across circles, policy changes, the rules of the auction and mode of payment among several other issues to all potential bidders by September 29, but failed to do so. DoT failed to release the IM as it is yet to map out the availability of 3G airwaves across most circles with the armed forces refusing to adhere to the timelines to vacate the airwaves. With the IM yet to be released, the October 8 deadline for submission of questions for the pre-bid conference will also be postponed along with all other timelines such as those for submission of bids and mock auctions. All this makes December 7 auction extremely unlikely. Mr Raja knows it as well as anybody else.