Spectrum crunch may force the government to allow only three private operators to offer

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3G services in a circle and said that successful bidders will have to make 100 per cent payment by March 10.

Even the empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, in its last meeting had taken a decision to this effect, says minutes of the meeting.

This would mean that the government may not get the targeted Rs 25,000 crore from sale of radio waves needed for third generation telecom services in case only three blocks were auctioned.

According to the minutes of the EGoM meeting, held on December 21, 2009, "DoT will auction 3 or 4 blocks each of 2x5 MHz of 3G spectrum pan-India (excluding one block assigned to BSNL/MTNL) subject to availability of spectrum."

Immediately after the EGoM meeting, Telecom Minister A Raja had announced that four blocks of 3G spectrum would be auctioned.

On the issue of payment to be made by the operators, the DoT has cleared the air that the successful bidders would have make entire payment of 3G spectrum by March 10 and in case of WiMax by March 20 this year (within current financial year).

The government has fixed reserve price for 3G spectrum at Rs 3,500 crore for pan-India and Rs 1,750 for WiMax services. DoT is likely to issue Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) on January 10 start the auction of 3G spectrum on February 12 and complete the process on March 5, 2010.