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

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).

Source: http://www.pluggd.in/indian-telecom-industry/3g-guidelines-india-foreign-players-allowed-pan-india-license-2240-crores-2398/