The telecom department has written to the Cabinet Secretary seeking expeditious vacation of airwaves held by the defence forces so that the exact availability of 3G spectrum is known before the auction scheduled for December 7 takes place.
It is widely believed that the government will fail to adhere to its December deadline to hold the 3G auction in the absence of data on the availability of airwaves across most circles.
The Defence ministry has not adhered to the timeline specified in the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between the communications ministry and the armed forces for the vacation of these 3G airwaves.
Telecom Secretary P J Thomas has shot off a letter to Cabinet Secretary K M Chandrasekhar, who is monitoring the airwaves vacation by defence.
In the letter, Thomas said the DoT is taking steps for auction of 3G spectrum at the earliest since this auction has already been delayed considerably and the Ministry of Finance has made a provision of Rs 35,000 crore of revenue from the auction in the current fiscal.
The Empowered Group of Ministers headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee had in August decided to auction four blocks of 5 MHz spectrum in those telecom circles where 20 MHz or more spectrum is available.
And in circles where the less than 20 MHz spectrum is available, the number of available blocks should be auctioned.
Further, the defence ministry reaffirmed its commitment to release spectrum as per the agreement it signed with DoT on May, 2009.
The EGOM then decided that the spectrum released by MOD should also be included in the auction.
As per the agreement, MOD was to release two blocks, each of 5 MHz of spectrum, in the 3G spectrum band.
The MOD has not released the spectrum and have raised certain issues, regarding ownership and usage of the spectrum in 3G band.
The DoT can give 3G spectrum to five telcos only if the defence ministry releases the blocks as agreed. Otherwise, DoT will not have sufficient radio frequencies to accommodate five 3G players.
