The government may hold auction of 3G spectrum during January 7-10 next year and is likely to give out details of the time schedule and eligibility criteria of prospective bidders soon.
Official sources confirmed that Telecom Minister A Raja had cleared the Information Memorandum (details of timing and eligibility criteria). The move comes within a week of Raja writing a letter to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, seeking his intervention to resolve some of the issues with the defence ministry, which has refused to release the required spectrum.
There will be a slippage of 10-15 days from the original schedule as decided by the empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Mukherjee.
Asked whether issues had been resolved with the defence ministry, sources said the secretaries in the ministries of Telecom and Defence were likely to hold discussions in coming days to sort out the issues.
