3G spectrum | Policy by Dec, says Maran

The communications minister also hints at pricing the 3G spectrum and its commercial launch in latter part of '07.

Within hours of announcement of TRAI's recommendations on spectrum allocation for 3G services, the government on Wednesday said it would come out with a policy for it in the next three months.

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"We are looking into the details of TRAI's recommendations and will come out with a formalised report in three months to enable faster roll-out of 3G services in the country," Minister for Communications and IT Dayanidhi Maran told reporters.

He said TRAI is maintaining technology neutrality in the field and "since both GSM and CDMA technologies co-exist in India, we would also look into that."

Maran, earlier in the day, indicated that spectrum for next generation 3G mobile services would be priced and would be commercially launched in the second half of 2007.

"The process for 3G service has already been initiated in India and it is expected that we should be able to launch 3G services by the later half of 2007," he said.

The minister said the spectrum for 3G services need to be priced rightly keeping in mind the scarcity of spectrum and fiscal deficit of the country.