India's Minister of the Communications and Information Technology revealed on February 17 that a panel of ministers will be established within this week regarding the auction details and schedule, according to Reuters. The Minister expects the 3G spectrum auction to take place by March 31, 2008, according to the same source.

The panel will determine a base price for the auction and the number of telecom operators eligible for delivering 3G services in the 20 of India's 22 telecoms service areas, according again to Reuters. Furthermore, India's Finance Ministry has suggested to double the base price for pan-India 3G spectrum, which was originally set at 20.20 billion Rupees (US$405.0 million; US$1 = 49.88 Rupees).