The Indian 3G auction will go ahead as scheduled according to the Telecoms Minister in India. After two missed deadlines, doubts started to appear when January 14^th was announced as the auction date and invitations were not forthcoming. However, according to the Minister Mr. Raja, the invitations to the auction are being ‘fine-tuned’ and will be available soon.

The 3G auction may still not go as planned though – originally four 3G slots were available however, the Defence Ministry has been unable to release as much spectrum as first thought, so the number licences has been reduced to three now. Indian telecoms firms BSNL and MTNL have already been awarded 3G licences. Let’s keep our fingers crossed that the auction runs to schedule now so we can see a new era of mobile broadband.