Kochi: Adding 10 million new subscribers every month, India, the second largest mobile market in the world, is likely to take its mobile base to 500 million by the year 2010, with the introduction of 3G spectrum. The country is currently having 320 million mobile phone subscribers.

"3G bid document has been finalized and broad guidelines have already been issued. The allotment of spectrum has been planned through simultaneous ascending e-auction process. There would also be a pre-bid conference between the industry and the Government," said Siddhartha Behura, Secretary in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology.

The 3G auction is scheduled to be held in January 2009 by the independent auctioneer, N.M. Rothschild, and the process of allotment of spectrum will be completed before February 2009. "Bulk of the growth in telephone connections comes from the mobile platform. But the objective is not just the numbers; telecom must be used as the tool to empower the citizens and bridge the digital divide," Behura pointed out during the Industry Summit on '3G: The Next Wave', at Kochi.

According to Behura, the government would now focus on providing affordable broadband, especially to sub-urban rural communities. He believes that this move is not only expected to give a new burst of growth for the community, but on a larger plane would provide multiplier effects to the entire rural community. "As the telecom connectivity and broadband connectivity become real, the rural communities are expected to become more integrated with the rapid growth processes taking place in the rest of the economy," he mentioned.

He also highlighted the urgency to extend services like e-medicine, e-education and e-governance to the rural areas. These services are presently accessible for the urban community and are quite critical to the rural population and can be provided through broadband kind of services.