Telecom News --

3G auction ends with revenue generation of Rs 67K cr

New Delhi, 19 May, 2010

Final pan-India license fees freezed at 16,828 cr five times of what goverment has fixed as a base price, getting govenrment 67, 719 cr.

3G auction ended today after 34 days of bidding process with top 3 Indian operators winning in the major potential 3G service areas. According to information available on DoT website Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications won licenses in Mumbai & Delhi.

Delhi topped the 3G bidding list with 3,316.93 cr almost touching the government expected revenue generation of 3,500 cr followed by Mumbai at 3,247.07.

Nine operators took part in the bidding process but no one emerged as the sole winner for 3G spectrum across 22 circles. Bharti Airtel lead the list winning radio waves in 13 circles and also paying the highest fees 12,295 Cr for the same. Vodafone follows with 9 service areas paying 11, 617 Cr.

Following Chart shows the details of individual operators :

Now the wait will be only for the 3G radio waves being actually alloted to the winners. DoT has confiremd that operators will be provided frequencies by September. By year end we can have private 3G networks ready to compete with public sector networks.

BSNL and MTNL have already launched 3G services but have not been able to really attract big number for these services. Now they will also have to match the biddding prices for respective service areas.

Finally indian mobile users will be in a position to taste the 3G services by the start of next year.

BWA auction will start after 2 days and its expected the bidding will be highly competitive as seen for 3G. Total 11 players including big names like Tata Communications and Qualcomm will be figting for 2 slots available per service area.

Final status sheet published by DoT : 3G Auction daily public report, day 24

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