Spectrum up for grabs: Foreign players eye Indian market.

Byline: Sudipt Arora

May 12--NEW DELHI -- India is poised to invite global bids for mobile-phone spectrum, a step many experts describe as the most significant policy announcement in telecoms since the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government took office nearly three years ago.

Dayanidhi Maran, the federal minister for communications and information technology, says the department wants global players to commit to new investments in India's fastest-growing telecoms sector, mobile telephony.

"The Indian Air Force is vacating 42.5 megahertz of spectrum by July. Shortly after this, we will announce a 3G spectrum allocation plan, which will be part of a larger broadband policy," he said.

The trend is pro-competition and pro-consumer. "We will follow the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations on spectrum allocation which specifies that …