Tracking the products, trends and reach of China's local to global tech culture.
DEFINITION: Shanzai [San-zai -alt. sp.Shanzhai] 1. mountain fortress/bandit 2. a vendor, who operates a business without observing the traditional rules or practices often resulting in innovative and unusual products or business models.

India: 3G spectrum auction finally announced
Articles - Asia Analysis
Written by Kiran   
Friday, 25 September 2009 00:00
Article Index
India: 3G spectrum auction finally announced
Page 2
All Pages

Add story to:

Digg    Facebook    StumbleUpon    Newsvine    Deli.cio.us    reddit   

3G, India, mobile, phone, telecom, 3G auction, 3G spectrum

It’s out; the date is 7 December, 2009. That’s the day that the Indian government has set aside for the eagerly anticipated 3G spectrum auction for GSM operators. Bids are invited from 26 October to 13 November and telcos vying for the spectrum are required to declare their shareholdings by 18 November and submit their ownership certificates by 23 November. I bet they’re all in a quiver over paperwork already, getting ready for the big day!

The ministry of communications has fixed the price for pan India licenses at $720 million (Rs 3,500 crore) and will offer 3G licenses in four slots, in each of India’s 22 service areas. Here are the details of the availability of the 3G spectrum in each telecom circle in the country.

3G, India, mobile, phone, telecom, 3G auction, 3G spectrum

The fifth slot is reserved for the two state-run telcos—Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL). India has major players such as Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, TATA Indicom, and smaller players such as Idea and Aircel, all expecting to bid in the auction.

Pre-bid conference

That’s not all! The government is also planning a pre-bid conference on October 12. October 8 is the deadline for submitting questions for the conference … do you need that in triplicate?!. In case your auction skills are out of practice, telcos can enjoy a mock auction planned for October 3rd and 4th.

The actual launch of 3G

3G, India, mobile, phone, telecom, 3G auction, 3G spectrum

3G was formally launched in India in December 2008 by the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh with much fanfare. The 3G spectrum was allotted to state telcos, MTNL and BSNL without them ever participating in an auction of the spectrum, which has given them an upper edge over the private players in the country. Turns out that this hasn’t helped them much, as we’ve already reported, 3G services in India kinda suck so far.

3G, India, mobile, phone, telecom, 3G auction, 3G spectrum

However, the state telcos will pay the same bidding amount as private telcos in the December auction. MTNL launched its 3G services, Jadoo, in Delhi and Mumbai, while BSNL launched its 3G service, Pan India, in February 2009.

Page 2: The future of 3G in India




 

Add comment


Security code
Refresh

English Chinese (Simplified) Chinese (Traditional) French German Italian Portuguese Russian Spanish
youtube friendfeedtwitter feedfacebook
A quick look at the Android-based T11RK portable media playerMore videos...

Buy Shanzhai

Banner
Banner

Asia Analysis

chinamap
indiamap

Recent Shanzai Tweets

More Shanzhai Devices

Is Spiga an ARMless smartbook?
Sagem_02 At Shanzhai.com we have been talking about smartbooks for months already. We predicated that real models would hit the market by the end of the year. Here’s one called ‘Spiga’ which was launched in...
More pics & analysis...
If Apple had designed an iPhone in 1999......
q300-ultra-1Well here's an iPhone clone with a difference. In fact you could well describe this as a fantasy retro phone. Known as the Apple Q300 Ultra, this clam shell cellular does a fairly good job of imitatin...
More pics & analysis...
The 3G device boom
3G_devices I don’t think the term ‘3G’ needs a formal introduction anymore. Geeks during early 90’s only dreamed about getting their hands on blazing fast data transfer speeds, wide-area wireless voice telepho...
More pics & analysis...
Unlocked iPhone worm – never gonna give you up
iphonevirus-420x0 Thousands of Aussies who had naughtily unlocked their iPhones were suddenly greeted with a new wallpaper on their phones featuring the ‘80s one hit wonder Rick Astley (who became famous for the song...
More pics & analysis...
Intel curious about 4G in India
intel-wimax 3G in India may be going through tough times but it seems that India has still got a wide 3G and 4G scope for the future. 3G in India will take some more time to get rid of the governmental mess but...
More pics & analysis...

In Partnership with:

shanzhaibenlogo