India aims to open new bands "quickly" after January auctions

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India aims to open new bands "quickly" after January auctions

By CAROLINE GABRIEL

Published: 17 November, 2009

Intel and AT&T were among the major foreign companies that attended a pre-bidding conference held by the Indian government, ahead of the 3G and WiMAX auctions planned to start in January. And the Department of Telecom indicated that it would look to open up several new bands, including 700MHz for WiMAX and broadband wireless, soon after the end of the 3G sale.

One of the constant sources of speculation, throughout the tortuous process of getting the Indian spectrum auctions on track, has been whether foreign operators would look to gain a foothold - as some, such as Vodafone, DoCoMo and Telenor already have - or even whether vendors would want to participate in joint ventures or franchise agreements. In franchises, suppliers and carriers share risk and reward and they can give a vendor a chance to push its preferred technology.

At the conference, according to Indian newspaper Business Standard, a clearer idea could be gained of which firms are likely to bid for the new licenses. The established cellcos were prominent, notably Vodafone Essar, Bharti Airtel and Reliance, as well as some of the new entrant carriers which gained 2G spectrum last year, such as Uninor, STel and Datacom. Most of the foreign telcos that have been linked with Indian auctions, such as SKT and Telstra, did not show up, however. According to Economic Times, France Telecom and Cable & Wireless have confirmed that they will not take part in the sales.

The pre-bid conference was organised by the Department of Telecom to address concerns and queries of any interested players, but did not entirely fulfil its mission - there is still no decision on the important issue of whether the auction will be conducted for all four slots in each telecoms 'circle' or region, or just in those slots where spectrum is already available (some has not yet been vacated by incumbents such as the Departments of Space and Defense, a critical risk factor for the progress of 3G and WiMAX in India). The DoT said it would announce its finalized policy on December 8, the day it will also invite formal applications. "If the defense forces are able to vacate the spectrum by then, we would go ahead with the auction of all the four slots. Otherwise, only available spectrum would be auctioned," said DoT joint secretary JS Deepak.

The DoT was unable to answer another pressing question - whether it would award the new licenses to successful bidders immediately, or whether there could be a delay, as there has been in 2G (some of the winners in recent auctions still have not received their licenses).

After the 3G and WiMAX auctions, further spectrum bands are expected to come up for sale "quickly", said the DoT, though judging by the 3G experience this could mean several years of rulemaking and debate. The next bands are likely to be 800MHz to add more spectrum for CDMA players (but, unlike in GSM/W-CDMA and WiMAX, state-owned BSNL and MTNL will not have early access); 2.1GHz and 2.3GHz for WiMAX, once the latter has been vacated by space agencies; and then 700MHz for WiMAX and other broadband wireless technologies.