Finance News

Raja likely to take up with PM foreign cos' 3G bidding issue

Communications and IT minister A Raja on Friday said that he would meet the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to discuss whether foreign players should be allowed to participate in the bidding for 3G spectrum.

Despite the department of telecommunications and the finance ministry being in favour of allowing foreign players to bid for 3G spectrum to enhance competition and get a higher value for the scarce spectrum, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has been of the contrary view. "I, myself, want to discuss the issue with the Prime Minister and finance minister P Chidambaram before reaching a conclusion on whether to opt for a larger participation of players in 3G, which would fetch additional revenues for the government or should we go by Trai recommendation," Raja said on the sidelines of an industry function, adding that the roll out of 3G services would begin in the UPA government's tenure.

Though the DoT and the finance ministry are in favour of increasing the participation in the bidding process, Trai has recommended to the contrary, stating that including foreign players would not only complicate the process but also increase the delay in implementing the 3G roll out in the country. The regulator has also highlighted that around 12 players in each circle should be enough to realise a fair value and competition. However, DoT wants to include more players in the bidding process in order to give a chance to foreign players who earlier could not enter the Indian market.

However, despite the DoT referring the matter to the regulator for the second time, Trai has stuck to its stand of allowing only the existing United Access Service License holders to participate. Raja also said that the time frame for resolving the Blackberry issue, where the government wants the Canadian technology provider to provide a lawful interception method, had been postponed by another month.