India may allow foreign carriers to bid for 3G spectrum

India might allow overseas mobile-phone carriers to bid for licences to provide third-generation or 3G services, India's telecom secretary, DS Mathur, said today.

The government had not decided whether the airwaves will be auctioned or allocated, Mathur added.

India also hasn't set a deadline for issuing recommendations on providing spectrum for 3G services, he said.

"If we decide on auctioning, then anybody can bid, even foreign players," Mathur said. "There is space for three to four operators, including the existing ones," he added.

The government's proposal to allow overseas carriers to bid for 3G wireless services, which allow faster downloads of music and videos on mobile phones, would be in opposition to the recommendations made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in September last year.

The regulator wanted such frequencies to be auctioned only to existing Indian companies. India added a record 8.31 million wireless subscribers in August as call rates as low as 1 US cent a minute lured new users.

Carriers such as Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's largest mobile-phone operator, expanded networks in rural areas, where less than 6 per cent of the people own mobile phones.

The growth in wireless subscribers has attracted as many as 30 companies, including AT&T Inc, Indiabulls Real Estate Ltd and the Videocon Group.