The DoT (Department of telecom) has decided to conduct concurrent auction for the third generation mobile services and Wimax (wireless broadband). The decision is likely to curb the possibility of any manipulation by operators.

Earlier the department wanted the 3G spectrum auction to be followed by a WiMAX auction. Dot official said, the recent decision will prohibit operators from speculating or from getting any undue advantage during the WiMAX bid. The simultaneous bid will also ensure that the Government gets aggressive bids for both streams of radio frequencies.

There was a possibility that if 3G auctions were conducted first then WiMAXbids will fall less to our expectations, said a senior government, reported Business Line.

Officials said since most of the operators would like to acquire a piece of either 3G or WiMAX to secure their future business, they will bid aggressively for acquiring atleast one, as they will get no second change. In case of sequential auctioning bidders had an option to skip one and bid aggressively for the other, in-turn bringing the competition graph down. X