All-India BWA bid at Rs 12,775 cr, set to end tomorrow

The auction for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum, for which the pan-India bid touched Rs 12,775 crore today, is all set to close tomorrow with only one circle, Kerala, having excess demand.

At today's bid price, the government will get a revenue of Rs 38,325 crore, according to the Department of Telecom (DoT) website.

The total revenue of the government from the sale of spectrum for both 3G and BWA stands at a whopping Rs 1.06 lakh crore, more than three times the original projection of Rs 35,000 crore.

Among the individual circles, Mumbai and Delhi got the highest bids of Rs 2,272.95 crore and Rs 2,221.02 crore respectively, followed by Tamil Nadu at Rs 2,049.45 crore.

Except Kerala, all other circles, including Delhi and Mumbai, saw either negative or no excess demand, indicating that the auction may come to an end in the next few rounds.

The government is auctioning two slots of 20 MHz of pan-India BWA spectrum. BSNL and MTNL, which have already been given BWA spectrum ahead of private players, will have to pay the equivalent of the winning bid in each service area.

As many as 11 companies are bidding for BWA spectrum. Apart from Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Vodafone and Tata Communications Internet Services, the BWA aspirants include four new players -- Augere, Tikona Wireless, Infotel Broadband Services and Qualcomm; and Spice Internet and Infotel.

BWA spectrum allows companies to offer high-speed Internet access as well as Internet telephony and TV services. It can also be used for voice and high-speed data services.