DoT to allocate 3G spectrum to telcos tomorrow

The government will allocate 3G spectrum to Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone and others on Wednesday as the Defence Ministry has agreed to handover required quantity of wavelength.

This would pave way for launch of high-speed mobile broadband services in the country.

Senior official from the department of telecommunication said the deck has been cleared and the department will handover the spectrum to the operators on Wednesday.

DoT had set September 1 as the deadline for allocating spectrum, as per the schedule of auction, which fetched the government over Rs 67,000 crore (Rs 670 billion) for selling 3G frequency.

There were, however, apprehensions in the industry as the, alternate network for defence was yet to be completed.

The government had raised over Rs 1.06 lakh crore (Rs 1.06 trillion) from sale of spectrum for both 3G and Broadband Wireless Access services.

As many as seven operators, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and others had bagged 3G spectrum in select circles.

Operators are confident if the spectrum is handed over to them by September, they can roll out services by the end of 2010 or early 2011.

If the spectrum is handed over tomorrow, then operators will be able to launch the much-awaited 3G services by the year-end.

The 3G technology, or the third generation mobile communications, will allow telecom operators, including Bharti, Vodafone, RCom and Tata which are in fray to acquire radio waves, to offer better quality of voice calls under 3G, compared to 2G services.

Moreover, through 3G technology users can download music files, full movie and other files at high speed. 3G users can access through handsets high-speed Internet anytime anywhere and can also make video calls.

TV programmes can also be watched on mobile handsets with a 3G connection.

Two leading operators Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications had recently announced that they are ready with their 3G infrastructure and are waiting for the government to release spectrum.