The Hindu Business Line : ‘3G mobile services may be available by mid 2008’

New Delhi, Oct. 25 Mobile users may be able to get the much awaited third generation services by middle of 2008, according to the Communications and IT Minister, Mr A. Raja.

Speaking at the 3G India Forum, the Minister said that spectrum will be released by the Defence by the year-end for both 3G and existing 2G cellular services.

Third generation services will enable mobile users to access high speed data services such as movie on demand and mobile TV on their handsets. However with operators showing more interest in getting 2G spectrum first, 3G services has been on the backburner.

The Department of Telecom is yet to finalise the policy for 3G services even though the telecom regulator had given its recommendations a year ago.

Mr Raja said that a key hurdle to the roll out of 3G services is the availability of spectrum.

“An institutional mechanism has been put in place for early vacation by the Defence. We are hopeful that some spectrum for both 2G and 3G services will be vacated by the end of this year and this could pave the way for a roll out of 3G services by mid next year,” Mr Raja said.

The Minister had earlier said that spectrum would be available by November. However, Government sources said that the Defence was not willing to release spectrum unless an alternate medium for communication was ready.

They said the Defence might vacate 3G spectrum first because they were not using the band at present while their equipment was still working on the 2G frequencies.

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