Govt may invite foreign players for 3G

New Delhi: With an additional 42.5 MHz spectrum set to become available for third generation mobile telephony, the government has indicated that new licenses may be issued soon.

"I want foreign telecom operators to come in 3G services to make it interesting for the subscribers and introduce competition in the service. Additional spectrum will be available by July and the Department of Telecom (DoT) will soon come out with a 3G Spectrum Allocation plan," Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran told media.

Asked whether fresh licenses would be issued to the prospective players to offer 3G services, the minister declined to comment saying "wait for the plan to be announced."

"We are confident that our project with Air Force will be completed by July and we will be able to release 42.5 MHz of spectrum available for 2G (currently available) and 3G services. We will be coming out with 3G spectrum allocation plan soon," Maran said.

"3G is a part of Broadband policy. When we announce the Plan, we will have spectrum from the defence with us to give the operators to start the service immediately,” he said.

Spectrum is the key component for voice and data services in mobile telephony.

Government will abide by the TRAI recommendations on 3G spectrum with Maran saying, today "A group has already examined the TRAI recommendations and we feel that 3G is not the extension of 2G. We will follow the system of TRAI's recommendations because TRAI has given very good suggestions."

Enthused with meeting the 250 mn phones deadline ahead of its December 2007 deadline, the government has set a new target -- 500 mn connections by 2010, besides 9 mn broadband lines by 2007-end.

"Broadband is a priority area for us. We have set a target of 9 million broadband connections this year, out of which BSNL and MTNL will do 7 million while the remaining will be done by the private operators," Maran said.

He said although telecom penetration is happening in urban areas, the picture in rural areas remains bad. To improve this, the government will be aiming to add at least one-fifth (100 mn) of the 500 mn phones in the in rural areas.

Maran said that by the end of this year, rural telecom connections could touch 50 mn and the remaining 50 mn would be added over the next two years.

Presently, there are 2.7 mn broadband connections in the country.