The wait-and-watch game for Wi-Max seems to be finally over with the government all set to announce guidelines for new broadband services including WiMax. The broad guidelines for implementation and auctioning of radio spectrum for Wi-Max have been formulated and the final draft is expected to be approved soon.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has proposed that a broadband wireless access licence should be valid for 15 years, as opposed to the five years recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). DoT has also suggested a process of controlled simultaneous auction for Wi-Max, similar to the method proposed for 3G spectrum.

TRAI has also proposed to raise the base price for wireless broadband services to Rs 600 million, Rs 300 million and Rs 100 million for metros and Category A, Category B and Category C circles respectively. Moreover, the auction is expected to be done for blocks of 5 MHz with operators allowed to take a maximum of 15 MHz.

This has not gone down well with the industry. According to Rajesh Chharia, president, Internet Service Providers Association of India, "The high base price favours the larger players and will impact broadband penetration. The ISPs will clearly not be able to pay the high entry cost."

DoT is also likely to restrict the launch of Wi-Max initially to only three players who will operate in the 2.5 and 2.3 GHz band, with one of the slots reserved for state-owned BSNL/MTNL.

India is expected to be the largest market for Wi-Max in the Asia-Pacific region by 2012, with an estimated market share of 35.7 per cent in terms of revenue and 15.8 million subscribers. While operators can look forward to tapping the huge market opportunity. The launch of Wi-Max is also expected to expedite the government's plans of providing e-enabled services in the rural areas.