NEW DELHI, INDIA: The government will allocate third generation (3G) spectrum to telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications Wednesday to launch high-speed mobile broadband services in the country on a commercial basis.

Official sources said the Department of Telecom (DoT) will handover the spectrum to the seven operators, who successfully bid for the spectrum in an auction that fetched the government over Rs. 67,000 crore .

The DoT had set September 1 as the deadline for allocating spectrum.

Operators have said if the spectrum is allocated on the due date, they will be able to launch the services by the end of the year.

Reliance Communications has said it will roll out the service by the end of the year or by early next year.

Public sector BSNL and MTNL, which were allotted 3G spectrum in advance on the condition that they would pay whatever was the highest bid amount, have launched the service in Delhi, Mumbai and 463 other cities and towns.