BWA bid surges to Rs9,533 crore on day 2

The bid for the pan-Indian broadband wireless access surged to Rs3,198 crore on the second day of the auction yesterday registering a whopping 83 per cent increase over the base price.

The department of telecom projects that at the price the government could expect to net a revenue or Rs9,533 crore from sale of three slots BWA radio waves.

Two slots of 20 MHz for pan-India BWA spectrum are under the hammer. State telecom operators BSNL and MTNL who have already been allotted the spectrum ahead of private players will pay the equivalent of the winning bid in each service area.

The bid for pan-India BWA licence touched Rs2,353 crore yesterday against a Rs1,750 crore base price. Tuesday saw five rounds of bidding with Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu provisional winning bid touching Rs 332.96 crore. The price for Kolkata and Punjab circles shot to Rs136.28 crore, while Kerala touched Rs106.98 crore.

While in 12 circles demand was in excess in eight regions demand was negative.

As many as 11 companies are in the fray for the broadband wireless access stakes and with new players Augere, Tikona Wireless, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, and Spice Internet and Infotel competing with established players, Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Vodafone and Tata Communications Internet Services.