NEW DELHI, INDIA: Excruciating wait. A wait that seems to linger on for ever.

Caught in the politics of procrastination for too long now, the telecom industry in India surely heaved a welcome sigh of relief when A. Raja, Union Minister for Communications and IT, paved the way for 3G rollout in country policy by unveiling the much awaited and hyped 3G policy in the country.
 
However, with Department of Telecom professing its inability to vacate the spectrum from Defense Ministry in nine circles including Delhi, the much-awaited auction of 3G spectrum may hit yet another roadblock.  A paper by DoT to be presented to the Defence ministry points out 30 Mhz spectrum required for nine service areas is not available.
 
Couple it with the recession factor that has forced major telecom player like Vodafone to request DoT to defer auctioning for few months, the roll out of 3G services in the country may still have to wait few more months if not another few quarters.
 
Fortunately, other major telecom players are ironing their strategies to outbid each other in spectrum auctioning (to completed by January end) and chalk out plans with vendors to roll out the 3g rollout in the country. The recession bug, analysts, feel wont hit the telecom industry very hard and it is expected most of them will be participating in the auctioning exercise.

If DoT get its act together and clears the spectrum from ministry of defense, the 3G rollout in the country won’t be a distant possibility and Indian consumers may finally be exposed to the value 3G services offer to them by middle of 2009..
 
History of Delays and More Delays
 
The latest hiccup isn’t entirely surprising if one takes into take into account the chequered history of 3G saga in the country, Right from the start of decade 2000, the ministry of telecom found it tough to frame the 3G policy for the country.
 
In November 2005, the then Minister of Communications and Information Technology Dayanidhi Maran had after years of deliberation promised to rollout 3G policy in the first quarter if 2006.
 
“The decision on 3G spectrum is expected to be taken by first quarter of 2006,” Maran had said.
 
However following his ouster from the UPA government, the process again hit a road block and it was only when the present minister took charge, the process was again started. The Ministry of Communications and IT had been punctually missing the deadlines one after another, for announcing the 3G policy for the country's telecom sector. By August 2007, the government had missed out more than four commitments made on the announcement of the 3G policy.

This procrastinated approach stood completely in contrast to the steps taken by other countries who were quick to appreciate the benefits 3G accrued to the country’s economy.Small countries like Sri Lanka and Nepal had introduced the 3G policy as early as 2007 while other European countries like UK has completed the spectrum allocation by 2001 only.