Mumbai:
After much hype and controversy, bids have started ringing in for the auction of 3G spectrum. The country's largest mobile operator Bharti Airtel submitted its application on Thursday, and other players - including RCom, Tata Teleservices, Aircel and Vodafone - are likely to submit their bids latest by tomorrow.
The auction will take place on April 9 and 3G mobile services will start from September 1, allowing high-speed content download.
The government is likely to garner Rs 35,000 crore from this auction. However, with the number of players reduced to 3 in most of the circles from 4 planned earlier, the target may fall short.
The delay in the process had created a huge controversy over the past few months. The auction of spectrum was postponed several times as among other things there was indecisiveness over the availability of spectrum and the number of operators to be allowed in each circle.
According to sources, Bharti will be bidding for pan-India spectrum.