DoT to auction 71 blocks for 3G

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will auction 71 blocks of 5 MHz each under the proposed 3G spectrum allocation in the country.

The licensor has identified one block for auction in West Bengal, two blocks each for Delhi and Gujarat, three blocks each for Uttar Pradesh (West) and Himachal Pradesh, and four each for other circles including Mumbai, Kolkata, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Punjab, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), DoT said in a memorandum released today.

There will no auction for 3G services in the North-East and Rajasthan as there is no spectrum.

A circle having two blocks for auction means that the DoT will only permit two companies to operate 3G services in that service area, after reserving one block for the state-run MTNL or BSNL in that circle.

The memorandum supplements and updates the guidelines that were issued by the DoT on August 1, 2008, and amendments to it on September 11, 2008.

The licensor has also announced the reserve price for the circles. For instance, the reserve price is Rs 160 crore for Mumbai, Delhi and Maharashtra.

The DoT will award 3G and BWA spectrum under two separate and distinct processes in a two-stage simultaneous “ascending” e-auction. Prior to the auction, pre-qualified bidders will be issued authentication tokens to allow secure access to the process.

The government today called for a pre-bid conference on December 23 with the prospective private bidders for the 3G spectrum auction, and announced that the online auction would take place on January 15, 2009.