No headway in 3G spectrum logjam

The stalled process of 3G spectrum allocation showed little signs of recovery even after a meeting between Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), defence and finance ministry officials.

“No decision was taken at the meeting today…we just reviewed the status of 3G spectrum and discussed our respective positions,” a senior DoT official said on condition of anonymity.

The finance ministry wants the 3G auction to be conducted according to schedule, the official said.

National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda has been given the charge of resolving the spectrum tussle between DoT and the defence ministry, the official said, adding the department hoped the matter would be resolved soon.

Tomorrow is the deadline for potential bidders to submit their queries for the pre-bid conference. The actual auction of 3G spectrum auction would take place on January 14, 2010. The pre-bid conference would take place on November 16 and address queries relating to auction process, licensing and other issues of potential bidders.

To ensure timely auction, DoT had asked the Cabinet Secretary to take a final decision on the issues related to spectrum vacation by the defence forces.

DoT is asking for frequency bands between 1,920 Mhz and 1,980 Mhz for the auction, to which the defence ministry said it could not vacate frequency in that band since it was already in use by the armed forces. The defence ministry is willing to give frequency between 1,950 Mhz to 1,970 Mhz.

DoT and the defence ministry had signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) under which the defence ministry was supposed to release 20 MHz of 3G spectrum. However, the MoU did not clearly specify the bands in which the frequency would be available.