After a lot of delays, the long-waited 3G & BWA auction processing for private players has been started in India. A total of 9 operators have applied for 3G spectrum auction and 11 companies have applied for BWA auction. So it will be a intense tag of war among companies as only 3 slots (in few circles 4 slots) are available for 3G, and only 2 slots are for BWA, i.e. for WiMAX.

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State owned MTNL and BSNL already started 3G services with Lowest Voice and Video Calls tariff and giving a unlimited data plan (speed upto 3.6 Mbps and 7.2 Mbps) at Rs 2500. So wireless data charge is low enough. At the same time private CDMA operators(Reliance, Tata, MTS, Virgin) who are offering EVDO based high speed wireless internet (3.1Mbps) are not offering any unlimited plan. With the entry of private players in 3G connectivity, the price is used to cut down to compete with BSNL and MTN. Recently BSNL announced registering 1 million customers under its 3G Mobile and Data services.

As high speed internet market via 3rd Generation telephony service, a new market of 3G enabled handsets is going to bloom. At present 3G handsets are mainly from Nokia, Sony Ericsson, Samsung.Surprisingly no China-made handsets under Indian brand are available for 3G. But Micromax H360 is 3G HSDPA Phone priced at cheap Rs 5500.

Have a look into internet/3G enabled Handset models available in India-:

Nokia2730 classic, 5230, Nokia 5800 XpressMusic, N97 mini, N97, N86 8MP, N79, E63, E71, E72, E75, 6700 classic , 6720 classic coming soon: 5235 with Music, 7230, 6700 slider, X6 16GB
SamsungB5310, Omnia Pro B7610, i7500, Omnia Pro7320, Omnia HD, Ultra Touch, TouchWiz, SGH L700, SGH i780, Omnia, SGH 1200, SGH J800, Innov8, Pixon, Star 3G, Jet, GT S7330, GT M7500, M 7603, Metro 3G
Sony Ericsson (includes those can surf net fast)Xperia X2, Satio, Aino, Yari, Naite, T715, C903, W995, W705, C510, C905, Xperia X1, J132, T700, W595, W980, G502, C702, C902, G900, W760i, G700, W910i, K770i, K850i, T650i, K530i, W890i, K660i, K630i, W960i, P1i, K810i Xperia X10, Xperia X10 mini, Xperia X10 Mini Pro, Vivaz and Vivaz Pro
LG (includes those have Internet Browser)GM730, KU250, KU990R, KU990, KS20, KE970, KE770, KP320, KT610, KF510, KM501, KM380T, KC550, KM900, KF750, KF300, KF600,KP199,  KP500, BL20v, BL40, GD910, GX200, GW300, GB270, KT610, KM710, GD900, KF240T, KS360, GM730, GW525, GT505, GB220
Motorola (includes those specially for Web Browsing)MotoRAZR V8, MotoRAZR2 V9, MotoRAZR2 V8, EM 325, U9 * all are older models, new models are coming soon to India
OthersMicromax H360, Spice G6500,
SmartphonesBlackberry, HTC, Asus (nüvifone G60, nüvifone M20), Acer(Acer X960, Acer F900, Acer M900, Acer DX650), Dell, Apple iPhone 3GS (available on Airtel and Vodafone)