India's much aviated third generation (3G) mobile services spectrum auction process begins today. According to the latest schedule announced by Ministry of Communications & Information Technology, the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) will be issued today i.e. February 25, with March 19 given as the last date for submitting applications for 3G Spectrum. On March 26, the ownership details of applicants will be published and mock auctions will be held on 5th and 6th of April, 2010.
The 3G auction process was earlier scheduled to begin on Jan 14 but got delayed due to uncertainty over the number of slots and unavailability of the 3G spectrum, now the 3G auction process will starts from today and 9th April 2010 is the final date for the 3G India.
The Govt.of India has decided to allow four private telecom firms for the next generation mobile telephone services (3G) and had made a provision for garnering up to Rs 35,000 crore from the sale of airwaves in the current fiscal. Presently the state operator BSNL and MTNL are the only operators licensed to provide the next generations 3G Mobile and Broadband services in India.
The auction process for 3G will follow the schedule given below:
| Notice inviting applications | 25th February, 2010 |
| Last date of submission of application | 19th March, 2010 |
| Publication of ownership details of applicants | 26th March, 2010 |
| Pre-qualification of bidders | 30th March, 2010 |
| Mock auctions | 5th and 6th April, 2010 |
| Start of 3G auctions | 9th April, 2010 |
| Start of BWA auctions | Two days after the close of 3G auction |
