Mumbai, Delhi neck-and-neck in 3G spectrum auction

New Delhi: India has concluded 76 rounds of spectrum auction for third generation telecom services in the country, with Mumbai giving tough competition to Delhi and attracting bids at around Rs.1,080 crore.

At the end of the 13th day of the auction, which began April 9, the provisional winning price for a nationwide licence stood at Rs.7,900.48 crore, up 125.7 percent from Rs.3,500 crore reserve price fixed by the government.

Though Delhi remained the favourite among bidders, attracting the highest bid at Rs.1,083.27 crore, Mumbai did not lag much in the race, according to data available on the website of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

The country's financial capital received bids at Rs.1,079.93 crore, a jump of nine percent over Rs.989.48 crore bid it attracted Friday. Besides, two additional players were still in the fray for the three available slots in the service area.

As against this, the provisional winning price for Delhi jumped only five percent from Rs.1,030.72 crore it received Friday and only one additional player was in the fray against three slots available.

While Assam, Jammu and Kashmir and Orissa managed to attract players, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh did not receive even a single bid, the data showed.

The 3G services will facilitate much faster connectivity than what is available now and enable applications such as Internet TV, video-on-demand, audio-video calls and high-speed data exchange.

Slots for three-four players are available in each of the 22 circles into which the country has been geographically divided for these services.

The government has already given Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) spectrum for 3G services on the condition that they will pay the same licence fee as would be levied on private players after the auction.

Along with the fee that will be eventually paid by the two state-run enterprises for the licences, the government will provisionally get at least Rs.31,964.84 crore from the auction.

This is on the presumption that every available slot gets filled at the provisionally approved price.

The government hopes to rake in Rs.45,000-50,000 crore from the ongoing auctions to award radio frequency spectrum for 3G telecom services and for rolling out broadband wireless internet services.

The bid data, including the winning companies' names, will be made public after the auction's completion and approval by the government. The winning firms will have to deposit the money within 10 days after the auction.

The successful bidders would be allowed to offer 3G services on a commercial basis from Sep 1.