India sees new delays to 3G licensing and MNP

India - the world’s second-largest, and fastest-growing, mobile market - has reportedly again delayed plans to auction 3G spectrum and introduce mobile number portability (MNP). Dow Jones Newswires today reports that a senior official at the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has said the 3G license auction will now be held in February, with a date to be confirmed soon. 
Today’s news follows a number of reports over the holiday period suggesting that the previously proposed 14 January date could be missed due to uncertainty over defence forces giving up spectrum. Just before Christmas the country’s telecoms minister was adamant that the January timescale could be achieved. The eventual auction of 3G and WiMAX wireless broadband licenses are expected to earn India about INR250 billion (US$5.3 billion). The money raised from the auction is set to help plug a yawning fiscal deficit.The auctions have been deferred three times since first being set for 16 January 2009, over issues such as an increase in the starting price of bandwidth and the number of slots to be sold.
Meanwhile, as generally expected, India's government has agreed to a delay in implementing MNP within the country. The service was due to launch on 1 January for the main Metro markets. However, the DoT has agreed to delay the launch after some operators said that they had not yet made the necessary network upgrades. The launch is now expected to take place by 31 March 2010. The MNP service allows mobile phone users to switch their service providers without changing their phone number.


source: GSMA MBB