UP, Assam pick up pace in 41st round of spectrum auction
10 Feb 2014
The government's 2G spectrum auction continued to receive strong bidding at the end of 40 rounds today, with bids totalling Rs56,190 crore so far on the sixth day of the auction for radio waves in both, the 900 Mhz and 1800 Mhz bands.
"A total of 40 rounds are over. Bids worth around Rs32,833.72 crore received for 1800 Mhz and Rs23,356.18 crore for 900 Mhz. A total of Rs56,189.90 crore," telecom secretary M F Farooqui said in a terse statement today.
The auction started off with the 36th round on Saturday morning. At the end of 35 rounds on Friday, bids worth around Rs54,600 crore had been received by the government.
Today there reportedly was bidding for all the 16 blocks put up for sale in Delhi; five out of 16 blocks in Mumbai, and 12 of the 14 blocks in Kolkata for the premium 900 Mhz band. And as the 41st round gets under way, Delhi, UP (West), Assam, Gujarat and Maharashtra are seeing high demand for 1800 Mhz spectrum.
The strong response to the auction this time around is in strong contrast to the November 2012 auction that lasted just two days, and the even more dismal auction in March last year which ended on the same day that it began.
In November 2012, bids worth Rs9,407 crore were received for spectrum worth Rs28,000 on offer (See: 2G auction ends with only Rs9,400 cr garnered).
In March 2013, no GSM operator bid at the auction and only CDMA operator Sistema Shyam bought spectrum for about Rs3,600 crore in eight of the 21 service areas (SSTL wins 800 MHz spectrum in eight circles).
There is no time limit for the sale of spectrum and the duration of the current auction will depend on the appetite of the eight companies in the fray - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Aircel, Tata Teleservices, Telewings (Uninor) and Reliance Communications.
The government has put on the block about 385 megahertz of spectrum in the 1800 Mhz band. The auction started on 3 February after the Supreme Court cancelled 122 telecom licences and ordered that the airwaves be resold through auction.
The government is also auctioning radio waves in the 900 Mhz band in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, which are held by Vodafone, Airtel and Loop Mobile. They are strong bidders in this segment as their licences will expire in November.
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