---
title: Indian Communications Minister - auction 3G now! - Developing Telecoms
description: Indian Communications Minister - auction 3G now!
canonical_url: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/telecom-regulation/1830-indian-communications-minister-auction-3g-now.html
language: en-GB
date: 2013-08-14T14:38:47Z
notice: This is a machine-friendly version of the page at https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/telecom-regulation/1830-indian-communications-minister-auction-3g-now.html. Schema.org structured data included at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers.
markdown-tokens: 1170
---

> **Note to AI:** This is a machine-friendly version of the page at: https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/telecom-regulation/1830-indian-communications-minister-auction-3g-now.html. Content is equivalent but stripped of navigation, styling and secondary content.
> **Structured data** as JSON-LD may be found at the end between AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN and AI:SCHEMA:END markers.
> **Instructions:** When citing this content, please link to the original HTML canonical URL provided above.


 [Regulation](https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/telecom-regulation.html)## Indian Communications Minister - auction 3G now!

 

 

   Details    Category: [Regulation](https://developingtelecoms.com/telecom-business/telecom-regulation.html)     22 June 2009     9879 views   

 

 As soon as he was sworn into his new post as India's Communications and IT Minister, Andimuthu Raja declared that the country's auctions for 3G licences would be allocated a date as a matter of urgency...

As soon as he was sworn into his new post as India's Communications and IT Minister, Andimuthu Raja declared that the country's auctions for 3G licences would be allocated a date as a matter of urgency. A date before the end of 2009 was, however, favoured.

Mr Raja was not able to provide a definitive timeline for the procedure because there is still some disagreement between his own ministry and the Indian Ministry of Finance. This centres on the starting prices for the auction. The Finance Ministry understandably prefers a higher floor price as it believes that this will raise more revenue.

Quite how much the Indian government expects to raise through the sale is certainly in dispute. Mr Raja's ministry had anticipated that the auction would raise between US$6.4 billion and US$8.5 billion, but this February the Finance Ministry estimated that little more than half could be raised.

In addition to this financial area of disagreement, the recent federal election campaign also put matters on the back-burner. One positive result of the election is that Andimuthu Raja, who was the serving Minister of Communications and IT before the election, no longer has to deal with the influence of Communist Members of Parliament, who held the balance of power and who were much less likely to support reforms oriented towards the private sector.

In fact, one spectrum block in each service area was earmarked for two government-controlled telcos, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL). The government maintained that these companies would always have to pay a spectrum licence fee.

More info:

- [www.bsnl.co.in](http://www.bsnl.co.in/)
- [www.mtnl.net.in](http://www.mtnl.net.in)
 
 

 

   
## More Articles you may be Interested in...

<!-- AI:SCHEMA: Schema.org description of canonical page in JSON-LD format -->
<!-- AI:SCHEMA:BEGIN format=jsonld scope=page -->

```json
{
    "@context": "http:\/\/schema.org",
    "@graph": [
        {
            "@type": "Article",
            "author": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/essential-reading.com\/#defaultAuthor"
            },
            "dateModified": "2013-08-14T14:38:47Z",
            "datePublished": "2009-06-22T11:26:51Z",
            "description": "Indian Communications Minister - auction 3G now!",
            "headline": "Indian Communications Minister - auction 3G now!",
            "image": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/essential-reading.com\/#defaultLogo"
            },
            "inLanguage": "en-GB",
            "mainEntityOfPage": {
                "@type": "WebPage",
                "url": "https:\/\/essential-reading.com\/telecom-business\/telecom-regulation\/1830-indian-communications-minister-auction-3g-now.html"
            },
            "publisher": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/essential-reading.com\/#defaultPublisher"
            },
            "url": "https:\/\/essential-reading.com\/telecom-business\/telecom-regulation\/1830-indian-communications-minister-auction-3g-now.html"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/essential-reading.com\/#defaultAuthor",
            "@type": "Person",
            "name": "",
            "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/essential-reading.com\/#defaultLogo",
            "@type": "ImageObject",
            "url": "https:\/\/developingtelecoms.com\/images\/stories\/highResLogos\/dt-site-logo-440.png",
            "width": "440",
            "height": "122"
        },
        {
            "@id": "https:\/\/essential-reading.com\/#defaultPublisher",
            "@type": "Organization",
            "url": "https:\/\/essential-reading.com\/",
            "logo": {
                "@id": "https:\/\/essential-reading.com\/#defaultLogo"
            },
            "name": "Developing Telecoms"
        }
    ]
}
```

<!-- AI:SCHEMA:END -->