In a bid to attract more telcos to participate in the 2G spectrum auction, the government has permitted the foreign companies to bid without the Indian partner, a report published in Economic Times said. This might come as a major relief to Norwegian firm Telenor who has separated from its Indian ally Unitech.

According to report, the decision to allow the foreign companies to go it alone in the auction might result in higher revenue, though the rules prohibit them from owning more than 74% of an Indian telecom company. The government has decided not to put it as a pre-condition for bidding ET said.

Successful bidders are likely to get a 90-day window to induct a domestic partner and comply with the sectoral cap, the report quoting an official as saying.

The auction of spectrum will be held in the first half of November. The empowered group of ministers (EGOM) headed by the union finance minister P Chidambaram last week decided to postpone the deadline of auction of spectrum by two and a half months.

The government will approach the Supreme Court on August 10 to request for postponing the deadline of auction. The current date of completing auction is august 31.

The auction of spectrum is being held following a Supreme Court order cancelling 122 licences issued by the former Communications and IT minister A Raja as they were issued on first-come-first-come (FCFS) basis.

The EGOM has set Rs 14,000 cr as the reserve price for auction of 5 Mhz of spectrum in 1800 Mhz band.