India Schedules 3G License Auction for December

4:09 AM // 0 comments // ngsk // Category: News , Technology //

This is happy news for the mobile users in India who use internet on their mobile devices.

What is 3G?
IT is a family of standards for mobile telecommunications defined by the International Telecommunication Union, which includes GSM EDGE, UMTS, and CDMA2000 as well as DECT and WiMAX. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephone, video calls, and wireless data, all in a mobile environment.

The typical services associated with 3G include wireless voice telephony and broadband wireless data, all in a mobile environment. However, with the capability for high-speed wireless data transfer, 3G has enhanced or made possible a myriad of additional applications such as mobile video, secure mobile ecommerce, location-based services, mobile gaming and audio on demand.

For example, using 2.5G (or a slightly better version of second-generation wireless) a three-minute song takes between six and nine minutes to download. Using 3G, it can download in 11 to 90 seconds.

As per the notice posted on governments Telecoms department website India’s auctioning of 3G and WiMax licenses is scheduled to be held in December.

As per the notice firms interested in participating in the auction have to apply by Nov. 13.

The auction was originally scheduled for January 2009 but was delayed after the finance ministry wanted the reserve price to be doubled.

Bidding for 3G licenses will start Dec 7, with the WiMax auction scheduled to start two days after the 3G auction is complete, according to the notice.

Foreign companies were also given a chance to bid but with a condition that they have to launch a joint venture with the Indian investors to run the services in the country.

The Ministry of Communications will license four slots for 3G in each of India's 22 service areas, with a fifth slot reserved for two government-run telecommunications companies ( Two companies, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd., were allotted 3G spectrum ahead of the auction, and have started offering services)

Last month A. Raja, India's Minister of Communications, said that a group of ministers were set up to resolve the issue on the base price, and set India 3G spectrum by a ministerial panel to 35 billion rupees ($722 million) from 20.20 billion.
By this there may be a Indian rupees 250 billion (US$5 billion) as the minimum revenue from the auction of the 3G and WiMax licenses in the country.

As per the base price set in lasrt month, A telecommunications company bidding for 3G licenses in all 22 circles will have to pay at least Indian rupees 35 billion.