The DoT (Department of Telecommunications) of India recently announced that India will begin the long-awaited auction for 3G spectrum on schedule, Reuters reported on December 11, 2009. The auction timelines for 3G-WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) has been re-scheduled several times and is now confirmed to take place on January 14, 2010, according to the same source, citing Andimuthu Raja, India's Telecommunications Minister. In addition, there will be four licenses available per circle and the fourth license has been given to Indian state-owned telecom operator MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd), to operate in Delhi and Mumbai, and BSNL( Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd), to operate in rest of India. Further details of the announcement, however, were not yet disclosed.