Raja said with only four slots being auctioned among private players, the bids are likely to go higher than estimated, yielding additional revenues as a result.

For WiMax, only three slots will be sold, he told reporters.

The ministerial group lowered the base price to Rs.3,500 crore for 3G spectrum, from the earlier level of Rs.4,040 crore decided upon informally by Raja and Mukherjee, following representations from industry.

The telecom ministry will now announce the detailed programme for the auction, which will include pre-bid conference in the next few weeks.

Third generation telephony services allow faster connectivity than what is available now, and will enable applications like Internet TV, video-on-demand, audio-video calls and high-speed data exchange.

Apart from Mukherjee and Raja, the other members of the ministerial group are Defence Minister A.K. Antony, Home Minister P. Chidambaram, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Information and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni, Law Minister M. Veerappa Moily and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia.