India’s Information & Broadcasting minister Prakash Javadekar has assured that the auction of the third phase of private FM licenses in the country will be completed by February, reports The Times of India.

The current licenses of private radio broadcasters expire in March and they have been raising concerns about it.

The Phase III auction, which will open up 839 new FM frequencies across 294 cities, has been held up for more than three years.

The first two phases of FM expansion in the country had auctioned 245 frequencies across metropolitan areas and medium-sized cities, while phase III will take private FM to some of India’s smallest cities and towns.

While the Phase II licenses were issued for a period of 10 years, the government has increased it to 15 years in the next phase on a recommendation from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

However, it rejected TRAI’s recommendations to reduce the base price for auctions and to lower the minimum channel spacing from 800KHz to 400KHz to allow for more stations.