India 3G Update

The bumbling with respect to the 3G apple cart continues !

December 22, 2009 | Ray Le Maistre

In another twist to India's 3G plotline, the government plans to proceed with the 3G spectrum auction in January but delay making the spectrum available to the winning bidders until August 2010, according to local reports.

The January date was set in late October, but that timeline seemed out of reach only weeks ago.

Now, though, the Economic Times reports that the January target is still in the Indian government's sights. The paper quotes India's telecom minister, Mr A Raja, as saying the winning bidders would be able to delay the majority of their license payments until the spectrum is made available.

So now, it seems, India's competitive 3G players are set to be indentified in January, but not be able to compete with state-owned carriers Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) until well into the second half of 2010, further extending the advantage those two operators have enjoyed since being handed their 3G spectrum in late 2008.

It should be noted, though, that none of India's operators would be able to fire up a 3G service within a few months of auction success, so the additional delay shouldn't be too excessive.

Meanwhile, competition in the 2G mobile services market has intensified further in recent days with the launch of services from new entrant S Tel Pvt. Ltd. , which is backed by Bahrain Telecommunications Co. (Batelco) , and an expansion into an additional "circle" by Uninor, which is backed by Telenor ASA

Uninor launched its first services at the beginning of December.