As reported earlier, the auction for the spectrum of 3G or 3rd generation services has been delayed yet again by the Department of Telecom (DoT) over base price issues with the Finance Ministry.

 

DoT's website states that it will notify the new dates for the auction shortly. So, now you'd probably hear about the next expected date/reason for delay of the auction post mid-February.

 

Post-February is an approximate time frame derived based on the standard 15 days stipulated for a ministry to respond to a matter addressed to them.

 

Now, the DoT and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have clashed over the number of blocks of 3G spectrum to be auctioned, reports the Economic Times.

 

In 2006, TRAI had recommended that the 3G auction should be restricted to giving away only 5 blocks per circle, whereas now, it wants DoT to auction all of the available spectrum blocks. The disagreement has surfaced because DoT wants to adhere to what TRAI had recommended in 2006, i.e., not auction all of the available blocks.

 

In its justification, TRAI says that it had recommended that 5 blocks of spectrum be auctioned in 2006 since that is what was available at that time. In '06, spectrum availability was only 25 MHz in the 2.1 GHz band, just enough to accommodate five operators at 5Mhz each. It was only later that the Defence Ministry had released more spectrum.

 

Well, whatever the reason for the holdup, for us, availability of 3G services in the country will remain a distant dream for now. We are destined to wait for it some more.