This is supposed to be the year of 3G in India. Well MTNL has started on a limited basis and BSNL should be there soon. But, the 3G auction seems to be stuck in a maze. As things stand there are serious doubts whether the auction will take place before the coming elections.
First, there were no real global telecom operators at the pre-bid conference last month. Then the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) decided to postpone the auctions by 15 days. Now, the finance ministry wants the base price for the 3G auctions to be doubled from the earlier Rs 2,020 crore to Rs 4,040 crore ($ 824 million). It also wants the base price for broadband wireless access (BWA) to be doubled from Rs 1,010 crore to Rs 2,020 crore.
What these moves mean is that it is unlikely that the process for 3G auctions will start before the elections. This also runs counter to the claims of communications and information technology minister A Raja's claims that the auction will happen in January 2009.
Of course it is well known that a couple of telecom operators are not too keen for the acutions to happen now. So,well wait and watch till the action starts.
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