Bharti today fired first salvo in the war for 3G spectrum by submitting application for bids. Tikona, a company promoter by Prakash Bajpai, former president of RCom, submitted application for broadband wireless access (BWA). Yesterday, Qualcomm submitted application for BWA. Therefore, the race is now hotting up. Friday (March 19) is the deadline for submitting bids. RCom will submit application tomorrow. MTS has decided not to bid for 3G. Tata group is likely to submit application for BWA through Tata Communications Ltd (formerly Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd) and for 3G through Tata Teleservices. One of the reasons for Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd (TTML) to sell its tower business is to raise funds for 3G auction.

The government is selling three slot of spectrum across the nation with the exception of a few states where four slots will be on offer. The reserve price for pan-India spectrum has been fixed at Rs 3,500 crore. BWA reserve price is Rs 1750 crore.

According to the Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) for 3G spectrum auction, of the 22 circles only five states --Punjab, Bihar, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir -- will have four private players.

The 3G mobile services will allow high-speed content download and broadband services. The successful bidders would be allowed to offer 3G services on commercial basis from September 1, 2010.

The auction of spectrum has been 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.

The Department of Telecom was at loggerheads with the Defence Ministry over the latter's reluctance to vacate the designated spectrum (air waves) for commercial use.

As per DoT's schedule, last date for submission of applications is March 19. The mock auction will take place on April 5 and 6, followed by the final auction on April 9, 2010.