On Thursday, a plan to auction third-generation radio frequencies for wireless service providers was referred to Group of Ministers (GoM) by the Union Cabinet. In order to drive next-generation mobile offerings, 3G services are quite vital. The offerings include high-speed internet and video conferencing.

Earlier, the 3G spectrum auction was supposed to be held on 16th January; however it was then postponed to 30th January. But it seems that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will fail to confirm to this deadline as well for the reason that Cabinet has yet again failed to clear the auction plan and set a base price.

In the meantime, states were allowed by the Cabinet to raise an additional Rs 300 billion via markets for the remainder of the current financial year that ends on 30th March. Also a plan to allow duty-free import of raw sugar was deferred.

"The base price for pan-India 3G spectrum would be Rs 20.2 billion while that for WiMAX would be Rs 10 billion. But, the Finance Ministry had demanded that the floor price be doubled," said the DoT in its 3G policy.

The doubling of the base price has been opposed by the Planning Commission, the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion and the IT Ministry.