Finance ministry asks DoT to move on BWA auction

The ministry of finance has asked the department of telecommunications (DoT) to initiate the process for auctioning of one block of broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum, which enables fourth-generation (4G) speeds of 5-15 mbps, many times faster than third-generation (3G) networks.

Written a few days earlier, the letter from R Gopalan, secretary, department of economic affairs, to his DoT counterpart, R Chandrashekhar, says it hopes DoT would have initiated the process for BWA auction. It requests intimation about the latest status on the action taken.

The letter also reminds DoT that the government has factored in a receipt of Rs 13,000 crore from the pan-India auction estimates for 2011-12. Due to the growing government need for revenue, the finance secretary had also written to various departments, including DoT, to closely monitor the non-tax revenue receipts projected in the budget estimates for 2011-12. Telecom spectrum revenues have been key to balancing the government’s fiscal deficits. It earned a little over Rs 100,000 crore last year from auctioning of 3G and BWA spectrum across the country.
 

AUCTION ACTION

* The letter from secretary, dept of economic affairs, to his DoT counterpart requests intimation about status on action taken

* The latest move will help many telcos, who failed to get a pan-India BWA licence in last year’s auction

The latest move will help many telcos, including some big ones such as Bharati, which failed to get a pan-India BWA licence in last year’s auction. Bharati is limited to the telecom circles of Maharashtra, Punjab, Karnataka and Kolkata. Its chief, Sunil Mittal, has said he’d like to be a key player in the BWA space and expects to launch services by the year end. Reliance Industries, in a tie-up with the HFCL group, had also decided to re-enter telecom by picking up a pan-India BWA spectrum licence. The other players who’d taken BWA licences include Qualcomm and Aircel.