4 slots of 3G to be auctioned; allotment by Aug '10: A Raja

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The long standing 3G spectrum issue has finally reached a conclusion. The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) has decided to auction four slots of 3G, confirms Minister for Communications and Information Technology, A Raja. "All slots, which will be given at the same time, will be allotted by August 2010."

After deferring the meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) multiple times, the meeting finally went underway today, where, it was decided that the auction will be conducted as per the scheduled date of January 14. "The auction will ensure level playing field," Raja adds. CNBC-TV18's Siddharth Zarabi delves deeper.

Here is a verbatim transcript of his comments on CNBC-TV18. Also watch the accompanying video.

It did seem that we were heading towards a situation where the licence auction would be done at a certain date but the operators who eventually won would get spectrum only a few months later, and that is because of the time that would be taken by the defence forces to vacate that particular spectrum.

In terms of the decision as we heard the minister say, it would be four plus one, one being the slot that is already reserved for the state owned operators. This decision is a throwback to what was decided by the same empowered group which has met three times so far on the 27th of August.

In that meeting it had been decided that there will be four slots available for auction across India barring two circles where there is simply not enough spectrum for four slots and there would be one more slot. It was only after that with problems coming up with regard to the defence surrendering spectrum that the DoT in the latest agenda for the EGoM which met today had suggested 3.

As we heard the minister say and I was just speaking with officials who are aware of these developments and they confirm it is four slots for private operators barring a couple of circles including Rajasthan where there probably would be probably one or two slots at the maximum.

In terms of the timeline while the minister had said that it will be held as per schedule and the schedule so far announced was January 14th, the notice inviting bids has not been issued so far. The officers tell me that it would be issued possibly within 2-3 days from now.

But still whether January 14 will be met. It is doubtful. I personally think that we might be looking at an auction that is more towards the end of January or perhaps in the first week of February unless the DoT decides to rush it through. But then the response from the private industry those who have to bid and be prepared for it, a lot will depend on that too.

Is the defence ministry spectrum related issue a done deal?
 
I must say with all things in government it is more or less done. The background here is that after the first meeting in July where the broad framework and the reserve prices were decided and the second meeting that happened in August it was only post August. In the last month and a half the defence forces went completely ballistic on this issue and said that unless you provide us an alternative network with which we can migrate all our communication needs to, we are not going to surrender any spectrum and that was when the critical issue happened and it seemed that the entire auction process was being delayed.

The government stepped in and Sam Pitroda was also roped in and eventually it was decided that the defence will be given an alternative network and as it appears at this point of time I think more or less the August commitment stands barring a few weeks back and forth possibly.