India ups 3G base price of radio spectrum, sees auction within three months

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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 13th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Delhi High Court Wednesday sought a response from the government on auctioning of radio frequency for next generation mobile services, better known as 3G. A division bench headed by the Chief Justice Ajit Prakash Shah asked the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to file a response by Jan 24.

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.

March 5th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government Thursday named External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee - seen as the man for all reasons - as the head of a group of ministers (GoM) formed to suggest the base price for third generation (3G) radio spectrum, giving hope that the auction may still take place before elections. The GoM will not only decide the minimum bid amount for the scarce radio frequency, but also the number of players who can offer the next generation mobile phone services in each circle, officials said.

October 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The auction of radio waves to start third generation (3G) telecom services in India will take place as scheduled, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot said here Tuesday. "The 3G spectrum allocation process will go on as per schedule in January," Pilot told reporters on the sidelines of a business meet.

July 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The growth of India's mobile telephone industry can suffer if the government continues to link the allocation of radio spectrum for service providers to the auction of this scarce resource for third generation (3G) services, experts warn. They also maintain that the policy to allocate additional airwaves based on the number of subscribers with each service provider is outdated and that a pragmatic policy must be unveiled to ensure the robust growth of the Indian telecom industry.

March 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - India may lose up to $13 billion in revenues by 2012 if the third generation (3G) spectrum is not allocated soon to telecom operators, an industry lobby said Monday. 'The telecom industry is losing a revenue of $3 billion each year on account of delay in spectrum allocation,' Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Assocham) Communications Convergence Committee chairman C.S.

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.

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.