Chennai, Sep 11 - The pre-bid conference with prospective bidders for third generation (3G) mobile telephony services is likely to be held Oct 12 where the procedure and schedule of spectrum auction will be discussed.

'Department officials are going to Geneva to attend a conference, so the pre-bid meet will be held around Oct 12,' said IT and Communication Minister A. Raja here Friday.

He was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of a conference information, communications and technology organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Tamil Nadu government.

Asked about divestment in the state-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam, Raja said: 'BSNL will be listed only on the consent of employee unions.'

The minister said the government also planned to shift information technology from the central list to the concurrent list so that the states have more say in this regard.

Post, telegaph, telephones, wireless, braodcasting and other like other forms of communications are currently in the union list, which comes under the exclusive purview of the federal government.