India's Department of Telecommunications plans to start a much-awaited auction of telecommunications bandwidth on Nov. 12, the government said Monday.
India is auctioning the airwaves after the Supreme Court earlier this year revoked the telecom licenses of several companies, citing corruption in their allotment in 2008, and asked them to return the airwaves they held.
Bids will be received until Oct. 19 and the final list of bidders who will be allowed to participate in the auction will be decided by Nov. 6, the telecom department said in a notice on its web site.
In February, the court ordered the cancellation of 122 licenses issued to several companies. That order was to take effect on June 2.
The court then directed fresh auctions for the cancelled permits, and asked the country's telecom regulator to frame the rules for the telecom bandwidth auction.
Following the February order, the government returned to the court to say that the bandwidth auction could take as many as 400 days to complete.
However, the court rejected the argument and told the government to complete the auction by Aug. 31. It allowed the companies affected by the license cancellations to continue operations until Sept. 7.
India's Department of Telecommunications then hastened the process. Earlier this month it set -- among other things -- the starting price for the auction at 140 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) for a 5-megahertz slot covering all of India's 22 telecom service areas.
The government again sought time until Nov. 12 from the top court to start the auction and another 40 days from the completion of the process to allocate the bandwidth to the successful bidders.
The plea is to be heard later Monday.
The telecom department said if there were any changes in the timeline, it would notify them later.
Source
India is auctioning the airwaves after the Supreme Court earlier this year revoked the telecom licenses of several companies, citing corruption in their allotment in 2008, and asked them to return the airwaves they held.
Bids will be received until Oct. 19 and the final list of bidders who will be allowed to participate in the auction will be decided by Nov. 6, the telecom department said in a notice on its web site.
In February, the court ordered the cancellation of 122 licenses issued to several companies. That order was to take effect on June 2.
The court then directed fresh auctions for the cancelled permits, and asked the country's telecom regulator to frame the rules for the telecom bandwidth auction.
Following the February order, the government returned to the court to say that the bandwidth auction could take as many as 400 days to complete.
However, the court rejected the argument and told the government to complete the auction by Aug. 31. It allowed the companies affected by the license cancellations to continue operations until Sept. 7.
India's Department of Telecommunications then hastened the process. Earlier this month it set -- among other things -- the starting price for the auction at 140 billion rupees ($2.5 billion) for a 5-megahertz slot covering all of India's 22 telecom service areas.
The government again sought time until Nov. 12 from the top court to start the auction and another 40 days from the completion of the process to allocate the bandwidth to the successful bidders.
The plea is to be heard later Monday.
The telecom department said if there were any changes in the timeline, it would notify them later.
Source