Day 11: 3G bid price nearly doubles to Rs 6,967 crore

The government would rake in a minimum of Rs 28,000 crore (Rs 280 billion)from the auction of third generation telecom spectrum on the 11th day, as the pan-India licence reached a bid of Rs 6,967.55 crore (Rs 69.67 billion), up by about 99 per cent from the base price of Rs 3,500 crore.

The bid price for the Delhi [ Images ] circle continued to increase, as the highest bid reached Rs 850.42 crore (Rs 8.5 billion), from a base price of Rs 320 crore. Mumbai [ Images ] witnessed the second highest bid of Rs 752.38 crore (Rs 7.52 billion)with five bidders.

Mumbai was followed by Tamil Nadu, with the bid price crossing Rs 710.62 crore (Rs 7.1 billion).

All the three circles have three slots available for auction, and have a base price of Rs 320 crore (Rs 3.2 billion).

A total of 64 rounds of auction were completed till the 11th day. The auction process, which started on April 9, is expected to be completed in 1-2 weeks.

Auction for broadband wireless access, or BWA, would start after two days of the close of 3G auction.

The government has budgeted for Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion) from the auctions of 3G and BWA, of which Rs 30,000 crore (Rs 300 billion) is likely to come from 3G alone.

There are three blocks for 3G auction in 17 circles, while in the rest five circles, four blocks of spectrum are available.

Communications and IT Minister A Raja [ Images ] has already said the government expects the revenues to be between Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion) and Rs 45,000 crore (Rs 450 billion).

However, the demand for 3G spectrum in Category C circles did not pick even on the 11th day. Orissa, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir [ Images ] circles have not seen any bidder till now.

Orissa and Assam have three slots available for 3G auction, against four in Jammu and Kashmir.

Six existing major telecom service providers -- Bharti Airtel [ Get Quote ], Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications [ Get Quote ], Idea Cellular [ Get Quote ], Tata Teleservices [ Get Quote ] and Aircel -- are vying for 3G spectrum in all the 22 circles.