Sinha said that 3G services for MTNL subscribers would be free of cost for the first one month and the services would be launched commercially by January next year.

"We will offer our premium customers to take the 3G connection over their existing connections. We want them to get a feel of the service before we ask them to pay for it.

Once our network is complete we will make it available for everyone," he added.

Raja said that spectrum allocation through the auction process would be completed by January 2009 and hoped that services would be available from all private players by the middle of next year.

Government is expected to allocate 3G spectrum to at least five private players subject to availability of frequency in each circle.