No bid was submitted on the first day today for participating in 3G spectrum auction, while most of the top telecom players said they would do so only on March 19 -- the last day.
According to sources in the Department of Telecom, no application was received today.
When contacted the top four mobile players-- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communication and Tata Teleservices -- said they would submit their bids on March 19, the last date for submission of applications.
According to the Notice Inviting Application, three private operators would be allotted 5 mega hertz (mhz) of the spectrum each in the 2.1 giga hertz (ghz) band in 17 circles, while four private operators would be allotted the same, each in the remaining five circles.
State-run BSNL/MTNL, which have already been allocated spectrum, would be additional operators in all the circles.
As per schedule, the pre-qualification of bidders will take place on March 30, mock auction on April 5 and 6 and the 3G spectrum auction on April 9.
BSNL and MTNL already offer 3G services but once the auction is complete for the private players, they will have to match the highest bidding price.
The government expects to garner Rs 35,000 crore from the auction.
3G mobile services are expected to enable consumers to access high speed data services on their handsets.
The reserve price for pan-India 3G spectrum has been set at Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 1,750 crore for WiMax.
