India will launch auctions on Jan. 14 to allot radio bandwidth for third-generation, or 3G, telecommunications services.

The government will hold a separate bandwidth auction for broadband wireless access, a document on the Department of Telecommunications Web site said Saturday.

The telecom department said it will auction about four blocks of radio bandwidth in most of the nation’s 22 telecom service areas.

It will offer three blocks each in the Uttar Pradesh (West) and Himachal Pradesh service areas, and two blocks each in the Delhi and Gujarat service areas.

The government is validating the frequency available across all circles for the auction, the department said. “Final details of the frequencies to be auctioned will be notified in the notice [that invites applications for bidding],” the note said.

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In the early years of the Internet, the more time people spent online, the more they paid a provider like AOL for their connection. But as customers have shifted to always-on broadband services, many Web surfers have enjoyed all-you-can-eat Internet for a flat rate.

Some cable and telecommunications providers are trying to turn back the clock and return to usage-based pricing for Internet connections. Carriers including AT&T Inc. (T) and Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) say they may have to switch amid a surge in Internet traffic as more people go online to watch videos and download movies.

Recent efforts to introduce usage-based, or metered, broadband services have met stiff resistance from consumers. But a new push by the federal government to adopt rules that would force Internet providers to treat all Web traffic equally, no matter how much bandwidth they take up, could give ammunition to the broadband providers that want to change how they charge for Web access, Internet experts and consumer advocates say.

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Top U.S. telecommunications executives Thursday gave a mixed outlook on the economy, saying business conditions have stabilized but they don’t see signs of a quick recovery.

The telecom industry has been relatively shielded from the worst effects of the downturn thanks to the growing need for wireless and Internet services. But it isn’t completely immune, as carriers face continued landline losses, weak demand from businesses and pricing pressure in wireless.

“Stabilization” was the key buzzword for the heads of AT&T Inc. (T), Verizon Communications Inc. (VZ), Sprint Nextel Corp (S). and Qwest Communications International Inc. (Q), all of whom spoke Thursday at an investor conference hosted by Goldman Sachs.

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Spending on telecommunications equipment has apparently slowed down in anticipation of pending details on a piece of that the government stimulus that will provide incentives for building out the nation’s broadband network, according to Avi Cohen, head of research at Avian Securities.

Cohen points out in a note to clients that Adtran (ADTN) execs asserted on their post-earnings conference call yesterday that the prospect of government subsidies apparently curtailed spending by Tier 2 and Tier 3 carriers and cable providers in the first quarter. The theory: companies opted to wait on capital spending projects until policies on incentives were clear.

As Cohen notes, there will be two sources of the added government funds.

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When AT&T (T) grudgingly agreed to break itself up 25 years ago, it was seen as a truly momentous event in the history of the telecommunications industry. Today, however, some experts question not only whether the breakup of AT&T was necessary, but whether it even had any long-term impact on the telecom market.

The breakup deal forced AT&T to spin off its local divisions that would then become local exchange carriers, and in return, AT&T was allowed to keep its long distance services division.

However, the rise of wireless services as alternatives to landlines, as well as the entrance of cable companies such as Comcast (CMCSA) and Time-Warner (TWX) into the VoIP market, has led some to conclude that the breakup of Ma Bell is irrelevant to the current telecom market.

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Yeah, it’s silly season, all right.

At a press conference this morning, a top aide to GOP presidential nominee John McCain was asked about the candidate’s computer illiteracy, the subject of a recent attack ad by the Obama campaign.

In response, top aide Douglas Holtz-Eakin waved his BlackBerry at reporters.

“He did this,” Holtz-Eakin said, according to Politico. “Telecommunications of the United States is a premier innovation in the past 15 years, comes right through the Commerce Committee. So you’re looking at the miracle John McCain helped create and that’s what he did.”

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Half-a-billion dollar (market cap) telecommunications provider Cogent Communications (CCOI) this morning reported second-quarter sales and a net loss that missed estimates slightly, and also cut its outlook for the current quarter and the year, which has sent its stock tumbling by $3.80, or 34 percent, to $7.42. For the three months ended June 30, Cogent reported sales growth of 19 percent, to $53.9 million, just below the $54.54 million the Street was looking for. Net loss of 12 cents a share improved from the year-earlier 19-cent loss, but the company missed the average estimate by 2 cents.

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Ericsson (ERIC) shares are down sharply in early trading after the company reported disappointing second-quarter results. As Marketwatch notes, profits of 1.9 billion Swedish kronor came in below the Street consensus of 2.94 billion, while revenue of 48.5 billion kronor were about in line.

The company provided a cautious outlook on the telecommunications equipment market. “With no major changes in the market environment, we still find it prudent to plan for a flattish mobile infrastructure market in 2008 and our focus on adjusting our cost base remains,” CEO Carl-Henric Svaberg said in a statement. Ericsson said that sales “have continued to pick up in the U.S.,” while remaining slow in Europe.

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