New Delhi, Sep 7 : The government may allow foreign players to participate in the upcoming 2G auction without an Indian partner and form a joint venture later, a senior Department of Telecom (DoT) official said Thursday.
Currently the foreign players are allowed to participate in the aution but only after forming a joint venture for the same.
"Some people have asked that foreign companies should be allowed to participate and form their Indian venture later. At the time of 3G auction, this was allowed. We are trying based on the demand and if required we may do it," said Sadhna Dikshit, Member (Finance), Department of Telecom on the sidelines of a pre-bid conference for spectrum auction.
Officials from most of the operators were present on the occasion including Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, Reliance Industries' arm Infotel Broadband, Uninor and Vodafone.
The operators enquired about issues such as re-allocation of same spectrum held by telecom companies whose licences have been cancelled, inter-circle roaming agreement and interest rate to be charged to firms for financing spectrum auction.
DoT officials assured that they will get back with all the responses by Sep 14 and will thereafter have another meeting with all the stakeholders.
