NEW DELHI: The department of telecom (DoT) is all set to halve the number of players it had initially planned for high speed mobile telephony (3G) in the country.

Sources say only two blocks of spectrum may be auctioned and two blocks will be assigned spectrum immediately.

Payment for third block could be partial and a sunset clause may be introduced for bidders of the third block with the winning bidder for the third block getting a refund if the govt failed to free spectrum by Dec 2010.

After failing to arrive at a consensus about the number of slots available for auction with the defence ministry, the telecom department is looking at three options to check the stalemate.

Minutes of the interministerial meeting on 3G available exclusively with Bloomberg UTV suggest that there are three options available, viz.

# Auction and assign two blocks immediately

# Auction 3 blocks by shifting state run BSNL and MTNL to another frequency band and keep the third bidder on standby for spectrum allocation

# Auction 3 blocks and assign them simultaneously when spectrum becomes available

The telecom minister had earlier made public announcement saying 4 blocks would be available for auctioning to private players.