India postpones mobile airwave auction to March 4

Reuters
A rickshaw puller speaks on his mobile phone as he waits for customers in front of advertisement billboards belonging to telecom companies in Kolkata February 3, 2014. REUTERS/Rupak De Chowdhuri/Files

MUMBAI (Reuters) - The government has postponed until March 4 the auction of mobile phone airwaves through which it is expected to raise $10 billion, according to a government notice on Tuesday.

The auction was slated to start on Feb 25. (http://bit.ly/1LepCRe)

The last date of submission of applications by Indian mobile operators has also been moved to Feb 16 from Feb 6, according to a revised auction timetable posted on the Department of Telecommunications' website.

The auction is crucial for the government to meet its ambitious fiscal deficit target of 4.1 percent of gross domestic product for the year to March 31, 2015.

(Reporting by Aman Shah in Mumbai, editing by Louise Heaves)