India has little choice but to auction spectrum for mobile services Most countries have far fewer operators than India does and rarely more than 6 in any service area. With a dozen or so operators in most service areas in India, the demand for spectrum far exceeds supply.  Auctions can have their problems - e.g. speculative bidding, possibly slower roll out in less lucrative markets etc. They may be unnecessary if all demand can be met easily. But how else do we allocate sp...

India Mobile Broadband: All decked up and nowhere to go? Between 2007-2010, the Indian government continuously delayed / postponed the BWA / 3G spectrum auctions much to the disappointment of the global telecom community. Finally it pulled it off in a flawless manner in mid 2010 when amidst severe competition, operators bid up the prices and the government literally laughed its way to the banks. In the process the BWA aspirants  paid more than a king’s ransom t...