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NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Department of Telecom (DoT) will begin today auction process for the 3G mobile phone service with the pre-bid conference for Indian and foreign companies.
The financial bids of those companies, which qualify technically and meet selection criteria, will be opened on September 30, the DoT said. Those who are eligible would have to submit technical and financial bids by September 22.
The DoT has specified that only those bidders who do not have any equity, directly or indirectly, in any telecom or Internet service provider (ISP) in India will be eligible to take part in the 3G auction in the country. Also any telecom firm or ISP in the country should not have any stake in the bidder company as well.
The DoT has also said that only those companies that have conducted at least five e-auctions in the last three years are eligible for the 3G auction. Also the total value of these e-auctions should not be less that Rs2,500 crore.
The bidders have to deposit a non-refundable processing fee of Rs50,000. As per the DoT guidelines the bidding company should have a minimum paid-up capital of Rs10 crore and a net worth of Rs25 crore, or equivalent, on the date of application.
The auction process begins amidst a tug-of-war between the Finance Ministry and the Ministry of Telecom regarding the 3G guidelines issued by the DoT and the financial implications of the 3G spectrum.
A letter from the Finance Ministry to the DoT had also pointed out that as per a Cabinet decision on October 31, 2003, the Finance Ministry and the DoT have to mutually decide the spectrum pricing and alleged that the present move on the part of the DoT was contrary to that decision.
However, Union Communications and IT Minister A. Raja asserted that his ministry had not taken any unilateral decision about spectrum pricing and had held consultation with the Finance Ministry in this regard.
It is expected that the 3G mobile services in India will begin early next year. Even before about the beginning of the auction process the DoT had allotted the frequency to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL).
There was a controversy over the EVDO service of BSNL, which it had begun before the rolling out of the 3G policy, as this was actually said to be a 3G Internet service.
