PTI

New Delhi: Public Sector company MSTC and Rothschild & Sons, which is bidding along with DotEcon, are among the four companies in the race to bag DoT’s agency which will e-aution the 3G spectrum.

According to official sources, Mjunction and Ahemdabad -based eProcurement Technologies, which has teamed with with Sai Infomdia Systems, are also vying for the post of the e-auction agency.

Metal and Scrap Trade Corporation is a PSU under the Steel Ministry with strong expertise on e-auction services for different government departments and PSUs.

The e-auction agency will initiate and supervise the entire auction process on behalf of the Department of Telecom.

These companies will now make a presentation on 29 September, before DoT and the technically qualified bidders will be announced on October 1. Two days later on 3 October, the financial bids will be opened and the agency will be selected on 6 October.

DoT had said even a consortium or a group of companies shall be permitted to submit the bids. Likewise, the same agency will also be responsible for auctioning of broadband wireless access or BWA services.

Besides, the DoT has said the potential bidders cannot have over 10% stake in any telecom or Internet service provider in India.

Under the guidelines, only those companies which have a paid-up capital of Rs25 million, a net worth of at least Rs100 million, and have conducted similar auctions earlier will be eligible.

The DoT had earlier said the auctions of 3G radio frequencies for telecom operators will be held within three months of selecting the agency to conduct the same. This implies, if the agency in selected in October, the auctions must be conducted before January, 2009.