Technofriends

India’s 3G seems to have entered a never ending cycle. Earlier, Government had decided to auction 3 slots and let the operator start 3G operations by end of year, however, in a new twist of events, it appears that the auction might not happen in the current fiscal year and will probably get postponed to the next fiscal year which starts from April 1, 2010.

Auctioning of the 3G spectrum is expected to bring in Rs35,000 crore to the exchequer and is being considered as a big step to reduce the fiscal deficit of India which is around 6.8% of the national GDP.

According to officials in the department of telecom who did not want to be named, law minister Veerappa Moily, who is a member of the empowered group of ministers (eGoM), has said that the auction should he held when the spectrum is available.

Telecom minister A. Raja could not be contacted immediately for his comments. Officials, however, said that the auction was expected to take place in August-September. It is pertinent to mention that the ministry of defence had agreed to vacate the spectrum only during the middle of 2010.

As of now only BSNL and MTNL are the authorized 3G service providers in India. Both BSNL and MTNL are state run companies.

RIM earlier launched BlackBerry Bold 9700, a 3G enabled handset in India.

Via Mint

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