Provisional winning price for pan-India 3G spectrum touches Rs9,330 crore

The provisional winning price for pan-India 3G spectrum yesterday touched Rs9,330 crore even as communications and information technology minister A Raja said the e-auction process would likely be completed in the next two days.

At the price registered today, the 3G spectrum auction alone would net the government Rs38,000 crore even as it hopes to garner over Rs55,000 crore from the entire auction process (3G and wireless broadband).

Delhi and Mumbai continue to lead the rest of the circles in terms of value with bids at over Rs1,400 crore for both circles after 100 rounds of bidding in 17 days. The base price for the circles was Rs320 crore. The bids for other circles are also increasing.

From today the focus is expected to shift to 'B' and 'C' category circles with nine firms including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices in the fray for 3G spectrum.

The government expects to net Rs 40,000 crore from the sale of third generation (3G) spectrum alone; wireless radiowaves would fetch additional revenues.

Raja said the strong bidding for 3G licences was a matter of national pride. He added that revenues from 3G alone would exceed Rs40,000 crore.

Raja had earlier in the week said he expected 3G and broadband wireless access auction would together garner between Rs50,000 crore and Rs55,000 crore.

Initially the government had estimated the auction would fetch Rs35,000 crore, however the demand for scarce spectrum in metro circles has ratched up the prices according to analysts.