BWA bid rises to Rs 3,198 cr

The bids for broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum auction went up by 82.7 per cent on the second day today at Rs 3,197.79, against a base price of Rs 1,750 crore.

On the first day, the bid price had touched Rs 2,353 crore, 34 per cent more than the base price. After the second day of auction, the government would earn a minimum revenue of Rs 9,593.37 crore.

“I expect the competition will be very high for BWA, as competitive as 3G. I am expecting Rs 15,000 crore from the BWA auction,” Communications Minister A Raja said.

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

Today, five rounds of bidding were held. The bids in Delhi and Mumbai stood at Rs 332.96 crore each, at a reserve price of Rs 160 crore.

Auction for BWA spectrum was started following the closure of 3G auction, which yielded over Rs 67,700 crore for the government after 34 days of aggressive bidding. The government had targeted Rs 35,000 crore from the auction of both 3G and BWA spectrum.