Govt announces 3G Guidelines – Foreign Players Allowed, Pan India License @ 2240 Crores

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Govt. has released 3G guidelines and here is a quick summary:

• Entry of foreign players (need to hold equity of atleast 26%in the JV floated with Indian partner)
• Global auction will be conducted for 3G spectrum and all players having Unified Access Service (UAS) license or those eligible for the license would be allowed to participate.
• 10 slots of spectrum will be available for auction – 3 will be reserved for CDMA (spectrum: 50 MHz, 800 MHz and 1900 MHz frequency band.)
• The spectrum will come with a reserve price of Rs 2,240 crore for a pan-India license.
• The reserve price for a 2×5 Mhz block of spectrum for Mumbai and Delhi (both will have only 2 slots each of 5MHz available for allocation)and category-A shall be Rs160 crore and for Kolkata and category-B Rs80 crore and for category-C Rs30 crore. Spectrum for pan-India license would cost at least Rs2,020 crore.
• BSNL and MTNL have one slot reserved to offer 3G services in their respective circles of operations.
• The operators will be exempt from paying any licence fees for the first year (will be charged one %of AGR (Adjusted Gross Revenue) every year).

This is surely a great news for foreign players like Qualcomm and BSNL/MTNL are all set to launch 3G services in the next 6 months (iPhone to be available by next month – perfect timing!)

What’s your opinion on govt’s 3G guidelines? We will analyze govt’s recommendations during the next few days.