All those who were eagerly waiting for 3G to arrive in our country, it looks like your wait just got extended. This is because The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has decided to wait it out until the controversy raised by the Finance Ministry's demand to double the floor price for 3G and wireless broadband spectrum settles down.

 

Recently, the Finance Ministry insisted that bids for a pan-India 3G spectrum will start at Rs 4,040 crore and for WiMAX at Rs 2,020 crore. However, it is believed that DoT thinks this increase in the base price would reduce bidders' interest in the 3G auctions, which already has a lack of foreign players; this in turn will make 3G more expensive for consumers like us.

Keeping aside DoT's refusal, it is expected that the 3G auction will be delayed and the current date of Jan 30 postponed due to the debate happening around this topic.