Government gives its nod to three private operators for 3G services - India News and Travel Times Provides India-centric and other News and Features

The government on Thursday invited applications from the mobile operators to take part in the 3G spectrum auction and gave its nod to the three private players in most of the circles, while four in five States including Bihar and Punjab. As per the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for 3G-spectrum auction in 22 circles, most of the circles including four metros - Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai -- would have three private players. Only five states of Punjab, West Bengal, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir have been allowed to accommodate four private operators. The document said all successful bidders would be allowed to offer 3G services on commercial basis from September 1, 2010. International Mobile Telecommunications-2000 (IMT-2000), better known as 3 G or 3rd Generation, is a family of standards for mobile tele communications defined by the International Tekevommunication Union, which includes GSM, EDGE, UMTS and CDMA2000 as well as DECT and WiMAX. Services include wide-area wireless voice telephone, video calls, and wireless data, all in a mobile environment. Compared to 2G and 2.5 G services, 3G allows simultaneous use of speech and data services and higher data. Thus, 3G networks enable network operators to offer users a wider range of more advanced services while achieving greater network capacity through improved spectral efficiency.