Communications and IT minister, A Raja has said the 3-G spectrum auctions would be delayed by a few weeks since the original blue print were clashing with Christmas holidays and it has not found favour with the foreign operators. However, Raja said the auctions would be held within the current financial year.

According to the original schedule drawn by the department of telecommunications, the auctions were slotted for December 7 for the GSM services and two days later, December 10 for CDMA and WiMAX services.

The delay was apparent as the crucial information memorandum, which was supposed to be released on September 29 has till date not been issued. In the absence of it the companies cannot apply.

On the issue of defence ministry’s reluctance to speedily vacate spectrum, used for its internal communication, Raja said, ?The defence ministry has to respect the decision of the group of ministers (GoM)?.

He added no major delays are expected on account of defence ministry’s lethargy in releasing spectrum, as the DoT has adequate spectrum to allocate, at least the initial 5Mhz each to three players in a circle.

?We have 3G spectrum available in varying amounts in various circles except Rajasthan, where there are no 3-G radio waves. Therefore, spectrum availability cannot halt the auction process. Any release by defence would be an additional gain and will help in giving it to more players,? a DoT official had said recently.

On August 27, an empowered group of ministers fixed Rs 3,500 crore as reserve price for pan-India 3-G spectrum and restricted the number of players to five.

The eGoM also decided on a base price of Rs 1,750 crore for pan-India WiMax (wireless internet) spectrum.

Responding to questions on allowing BSNL, MTNL to expand globally and whether the state run PSUs would participate in the consortium to bid for Kuwait-based Zain Telecom?s Africa operations, he said, ?I am totally in the dark about this. These PSUs have a right to negotiate deals, their hands are not tied and they can do such deals if the deal is commercially good.? Commenting upon BSNL’s IPO he said, ?as market is looking up, BSNL could revive the IPO plans but they will talk to trade unions too before this?.