The Indian government may again delay the auction of spectrum for the launch of third generation telephony by private players, as differences persist among some departments on key issues such as number of operators in each circle.
"Some of the issues between the defence ministry and the telecom department have not been resolved," Communications Minister A Raja told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday after a meeting of an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) set up on the subject.
"The chairman will decide. Or another round of consultations may be held," Raja added, referring to the ministerial panel headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee that has been seeking to resolve the issues.
After a delay of over a year, the auctions were planned for January 14. The ministerial panel was to approve what is called the notice inviting applications from private telecom service operators wanting to launch such services.
According to officials, the key issue that also remains to be resolved is the number of private players to be allowed for third generation telephony as the radio frequency spectrum available for civilian use is limited.
Third-generation telephony services allow much faster connectivity than what is available now, and will enable applications like Internet TV, video-on-demand, audio-video calls and high-speed data exchange.
Two state-run firms, Mananagar Telephone Nigam and Bharat Sanchar Nigam, have already launched third generation services after allocation of airwaves on a priority basis.
