3G auction base price proposed at Rs.4,040 crore

June 19th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government will announce the base price for the much-awaited auctions of third generation (3G) radio waves within a week, Communications and IT Minister A. Raja said here Friday.

September 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bharti Airtel, the country's largest telecom operator in terms of subscribers, Wednesday said it will launch third generation (3G) mobile telephony services by October 2010. "If everything goes well on time with regard to spectrum auction, by February or March we should receive spectrum allocation, Bharti Airtel chief executive Manoj Kohli told reporters on the sidelines of a telecom conference here.

June 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - No consensus has been reached between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the finance ministry on the reserve price for third generation (3G) radio waves auction, Communications Minister A. Raja said here Tuesday.

March 18th, 2009 NEW DELHI - It is unlikely that auction of the spectrum for third generation (3G) telecommunication applications will take place before the Lok Sabha elections, telecom secretary Siddharth Behura said Wednesday. 'We cannot talk about 3G spectrum auctions since it is election time and nothing seems to be feasibe currently,' Behura told reporters on the sidelines of 17th Convergence India conference here.

February 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Communications Minister A. Raja Tuesday said the auction of spectrum for 3G services could be completed before March 31, even though issues regarding the licence fee and bandwidth are yet to be decided by a ministerial panel.

July 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government Monday constituted an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) to look into matters concerning third generation (3G) spectrum auctions scheduled to happen this year. The nine-member EGoM will be headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, a Department of Telecommunication (DoT) official told IANS.

June 16th, 2009 NEW DELHI - No consensus has been reached between the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the finance ministry on the reserve price for third generation (3G) radio waves auction, Communications Minister A. Raja said here Tuesday.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government expects to raise as much as Rs.35,000 crore ($7.2 billion) from auction of third generation (3G) spectrum, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said Monday while presenting the budget for 2009-10 in the Lok Sabha. The estimated figure, included in the receipts from the "other communications services" category in the budget, is higher than what Communications and IT Minister A.

August 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - An 'Empowered Group of Ministers' (EGoM), constituted by the Government to supervise the spectrum for 3G telephony, on Thursday fixed the reserve price for pan-India 3G spectrum at Rs 3,500 crore. It also decided to allow only five operators to offer the high-speed mobile services in the first phase, where one existing operator - BSNL or MTNL - in their respective circles will be given the spectrum along with four new operators.

August 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India raised reserve prices for auctions of third-generation (3G) and fourth-generation (4G) radio spectrum by nearly three-quarters on Thursday. Union Telecommunication Minister A.

February 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The communications ministry may expect the auction of scarce 3G spectrum to fetch Rs.30,000-Rs.40,000 crore ($6-8 billion), but the interim budget for 2009-10 has projected no more than Rs.20,000 crore ($4 billion) on that count. 'The budget estimates for 2009-10 include a sum of Rs.20,000 crore as the expected revenue from auction of 3G spectrum,' says the receipts budget tabled Monday by External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee.

January 28th, 2009 NEW DELHI - In a move that will delay the launch of third generation (3G) mobile telephony in India, the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs (CCEA) has referred the issues relating to spectrum auction to a Group of Ministers, the government said Thursday. 'We are looking for an early decision from the Group of Ministers,' Jyotiraditya Scindia, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, told reporters here.

January 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The much-awaited radio frequency auction for third generation (3G) telecom services is likely to be delayed further and a new timeframe will be notified after the cabinet takes a decision, a government official said Thursday. The auctions of 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum were scheduled to start Jan 30, but an official of the Department of Telecom (DoT) said the schedule has been revised.

July 23rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - The wait for the auction of radio waves to start third generation (3G) telecom services in India has got longer. A key ministry panel that will take a decision on crucial issues like pricing is scheduled to meet only at the end of the month.

July 31st, 2009 NEW DELHI - The high-powered ministerial group, set up to decide on issues related with the auction of frequency spectrum for third generation telecom services, is scheduled to meet here for the first time later Friday. The mandate of the empowered group, which has been set up under Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, is to decide the base price for the spectrum auction and the number of operators to be allowed in each telecom circle for offering third generation, or 3G, services.