With the heating up of much awaited 3G spectrum allocation, the government has set up a Group of Ministers (GoM) to look into the pricing issue and auctioning for 3G spectrum, revolutionizing the era of communication and information on mobile phones.
According to information sent to us from Delhi, the GoM will be headed by finance minister Pranab Mukherjee and will include Union ministers P Chidambaram, Sharad Pawar and A Raja as members.
The GoM will primarily look into deciding the number of operators in each telecom circle, the reserve price for 3G with broadband wireless services (Wi Max) and the fee payable by mobile operators to the auctioner.
According to the previous notification of the government last month, auction of 3G spectrum will be at a reserve price of Rs 4,040 crore to at least six private operators excluding state-owned MTNL and BSNL.
During the last government regime, A Raja had maintained that no final decision had been taken and had said that the final call on reserve price will be taken either by the Group of Ministers or the Cabinet.