India’s prime minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, launched the country’s first official 3G network in Delhi today. The network was switched on by state-owned operator MTNL, which will expand the network to cover the major cities of Mumbai and Chennai early next year. According to a Cellular News report, the network is branded as ‘MTNL 3G Jadoo’ and will initially be free to use with commercial tariffs to be announced shortly. MTNL has been testing the network for several months. Rival state-owned mobile operator BSNL has reportedly been running a 3G pilot service to 2,000 subscribers in the city of Pune since August, and also plans to launch commercial services early next year.

BSNL and MTNL have each been awarded a block of 5MHz spectrum in the 2.1GHz band for 3G services prior to the planned auction for private operators, which is scheduled to close in January. 60MHz of national 3G spectrum is expected to be made available and the airwaves are compatible with both GSM- and CDMA-based 3G technologies, and both domestic and overseas companies are eligible to bid. As many as ten licenses are expected to be issued. BSNL and MTNL will both eventually be required to pay a license fee equivalent to the highest price paid in the private auction. According to Cellular News, India’s Department of Telecommunications has fixed the reserve price for the licenses at INR160 crore (US$37.6 million) for metros and category A circles, INR80 crore for category B, and INR30 crore for category C. The reserve price for a pan-India license is INR2,020 crore.