From our India site ContentSutra: Over a year after the telecom regulator TRAI recommended guidelines for 3G, the Indian government has announced its 3G policy. Contrary to the Indian regulators recommendations, foreign firms (like AT&T, (NYSE: T) Verizon) and companies without a telecom licence (like DLF, Indiabulls) can bid for 3G spectrum, reports the Hindu. As per ToI sources, it’s likely that 3 operators will get 10Mhz each.

CDMA operators don’t have to bid for spectrum (in the 800 MHz band), but will have to pay a price equal to the highest GSM auction bid. The policy appears to favour existing CDMA operators, and GSM incumbents are likely to suffer: they’ll suffer the winners curse of higher costs if they win, and might lose high APRU customers to 3G operators if they don’t.