Govt to hold 3G specturm auction on Dec 7

The government will hold the much-awaited 3G spectrum auction for GSM operators on December 7 and invite bids from October 26 to November 13.

It will hold the auction for EVDO (CDMA version of 3G) and Broadband Wireless Access after two days of the 3G auction.

The winners will have to pay their bid deposit amounts within five days of the closure of the auction and pay the balance after 15 days.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) will issue a revised Information Memorrandum on September 29. And keeping in view the security concerns, it has asked for publications of ownership details of the applicants along with compliance certificates so that nothing goes wrong at the bidding stage.

According to the timetable, aspirant companies would have to submit their authenticated ownership certificates by November 23. And before that they will have to give details of their shareholdings by November 18.

A pre-bid conference will be held on October 12 and the deadline for submission of questions for the meet will be held on October 8.

The DoT will issue clarifications if any on October 22.

A mock auction will be held for two days on October 3 and 4.

The government had earlier said the auction would be held within 90 days.

A ministerial panel last month had decided on the base price for 3G spectrum auction on an all-India basis. Four slots are to be put up for auction in circles for private players. The other player would be BSNL or MTNL.

The panel had decided that there would be three 20 MHz slots of BWA spectrum at a reserve price of Rs 1,750 crore and one 2X1.25 MHz slot of EVDO spectrum at a reserve price of Rs 875 crore on the block.

Both MTNL and BSNL have already been allotted 3G spectrum and have launched services. However, these two public sector firms too will eventually have to match the highest bid that emerges in the upcoming auctions.

Each operator will be given 5Mhz of spectrum to launch the service.

Operators are expected to start the service by Diwali next year.