Foreign companies, except those already present in India, have stayed away from the auction of third-generation mobile spectrum, or 3G, though two new ones are keen on broadband wireless access.Not one new foreign company has applied for 3G. The last day for showing interest in bidding for 3G and BWA spectrum drew to a close on Friday.
US-based AT&T and Verizon, and Australia's Telstra were keen to enter the Indian mobile market and were expected to participate in the auction. Most of the bids came from companies which are already providing mobile services in the country.
The auctions for 3G spectrum begin on April 9 and for BWA two days after the close of the 3G auction.
A total of nine applications were received for 3G by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Aircel, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Idea Cellular, STel--all of them already operating in the market--and Etisalat DB (earlier Swan Telecom) and Videocon, which hold licences but have not started services, submitted applications for participating in auction of 3G spectrum.
Eleven other applications came for BWA, which enables high-speed wireless broadband, from Bharti Airtel, Reliance Wimax, Vodafone Essar, Tikona Digital, Tata Communications (formerly VSNL), Qualcomm, Aircel, Spice Internet Service Provider, Infotel Broadband Services, Augure Ltd and Idea Cellular.
The Central Vigilance Commission had said that DoT's 3G spectrum policy preferred Indian telecom players over foreign players, a claim DoT has denied.
DoT will auction three slots of 3G spectrum in most of the circles. The reserve price for pan-India spectrum has been fixed at Rs 3,500 crore. For BWA, there are only two slots in each circle, with the minimum base price at Rs 1,750 crore for a pan-India licence.
According to the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for 3G, out of the 22 circles, five--Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu & Kashmir--will have four private players each. The successful bidders would be allowed to offer 3G services commercially from September 1 this year.
