Newly appointed Telecom Minister Andimuthu Raja said that the government will auction third-generation wireless radio (3G) spectrum by the end of this year.

"The 3G auction will definitely take place by the end of this year," said the Union Minister at the capital.

Speaking with the media persons, Raja said that many things regarding 3G needed to be discovered.

At present, only government owned companied viz. MTNL and BSNL are providing this service in selected cities only. Private companies are still awaiting spectrum to be apportioned.

However, the Minister refused to say how much the government expected to raise through the sale.

It should be noted here that the Telecom Ministry was to auction the 3G telecommunications spectrum in January, but due to some reasons it could not happened.

Experts do believe that government could auction to raise 300 to 400 billion rupees ($6.4 to $8.5 billion).

But, the Finance Ministry in February estimated the sale could bring just half of that.
3G services let voice, data and video to be transmitted at high speeds to wireless devices.