India picks April 9 for long-overdue 3G auction
By Chris Ziegler 
posted February 24th 2010 11:26AM
posted February 24th 2010 11:26AM
Okay, it's set: April 9. No, seriously this time. Seriously. After a handful of false starts spanning over a year, India -- perhaps sitting on the second largest untapped broadband wireless market in the world -- has decided on a 3G auction date in just a few months' time, hoping to raise somewhere in the neighborhood of 350 billion rupees ($7.6 billion) for a set of licenses that includes 22 of the country's 24 wireless zones. Most zones have four slots available, but a handful -- including the all-important Delhi area -- only have two thanks to extreme spectrum saturation, an issue that likely accounts at least in part for the delay in getting this thing underway. Interested parties have until March 19 to submit their interest; the country's top three carriers are all prepping nationwide bids, while Telenor has said that it'll bid in select zones, and even AT&T -- yes, AT&T -- is said to be eying an entrance to the market. Nationwide rollover, anyone?
About time.
@AnAnt
About time indeed. EDGE on the NexusOne can only take me so far :)
@joshuakarthik
do what i do ..... jump between wi-fi hotspots as quick as possible ;)
Why not just by pass it and go directly for 4g (lte?).
I think Tata already has Wi-Max does it not?
In neighboring Pakistan there has already been Wi-Max for 3 years now and more and more Telco's are getting on board for data (not voice) and bringing it to the major cities.
You would think that with the world moving to 4g and cellular being the main way ppl in the region get online, they would do more to bring the technologies to them.