BT now and then

NOW
BSNL and MTNL have already rolled out 3G services. Last fortnight, nine telecom companies, including the likes of Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar, commenced battle for 3G airwave slots across 22 circles in an online auction. At the time of writing, the auction had fetched bids worth Rs 7,599 crore on the twelfth day of auction.

The winners will be able to roll out 3G services to their subscribers by September this year. At last, 3G is here in India. But the road to 3G was anything but smooth.

How Long for 3G?

THEN (July 15, 2007)
For about six months now, DoT has been threatening to come out with a 3G policy, but it hasn't yet delivered on the promise. When BT spoke to DoT officials, they again said the policy would be out in a month's time. This time around, there's another problem. The new Telecom Minister, A. Raja, who took charge on May 16, 2007, hasn't yet got up to speed on the issues, and may need time to make a decision. As far as allocating the spectrum is concerned, it is almost certain now that the government will conduct an auction.

TRAI has recommended a minimum price of Rs 1,500 crore per licence, but among the operators, only Ratan Tata of Tata Teleservices seems amenable to the idea. Others believe that the allocation of spectrum should be need-based—that is, dependent on the number of subscribers an operator has. There's also the issue of whether the auction will be open to new players. Not surprisingly, the incumbent operators think they should get precedence.

"We believe that existing operators must get priority in terms of allocation of this spectrum," says Manoj Kohli, President and CEO, Bharti Airtel. Smaller players such as Spice Communications worry that selective auction will be to their disadvantage. "It is important to protect the interests of all the existing operators," says Umang Das, Joint MD, Spice.