BWA bid rises to Rs 3,198 cr; govt revenue at Rs 9,533 cr

The bid for the pan-Indian broadband wireless access spectrum rose to Rs 3,198 crore on the second day of the auction today, up by a whopping 83 per cent over the base price.

According to the estimate of the Department of Telecom, at this price the government would realise a revenue of Rs 9,533 crore from sale of three slots BWA radio waves.

The government is auctioning two slots of 20 MHz of pan- Indian BWA spectrum. 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.

The bid for nation-wide BWA licence had touched Rs 2,353 crore yesterday against the base price of Rs 1,750 crore.

Today, five rounds of bidding were held which saw Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu bid touching Rs 332.96 crore. The price for Kolkata and Punjab circles rose to Rs 136.28 crore, while that for Kerala touched Rs 106.98 crore.

Twelve circles saw excessive demand, while eight regions saw negative demands.

As many as 11 companies are bidding for broadband wireless access spectrum. Apart from Bharti Airtel, Reliance, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Vodafone and Tata Communications Internet Services, the BWA list has four new players — Augere, Tikona Wireless, Infotel Broadband Services and Qualcomm, and Spice Internet and Infotel.

Telecom Minister A Raja had said he expected Rs 15,000 crore from the BWA spectrum auction.

Earlier, the government had estimated a revenue of Rs 35,000 crore from sale of both 3G and BWA radio waves. However, the 3G auction, which concluded recently, has fetched Rs 67,719 crore to the government. Considering the estimated revenue from BWA spectrum auction so far, the government will fetch Rs 77,252 crore in total.

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.