BWA bid rises to Rs 4,198 cr; govt revenue at Rs 12,296 cr

The bid for the pan-India broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum rose to Rs 4,198 crore on the third day of the auction today against the base price of Rs 1,750 crore.

At the current price the government would realise a revenue of Rs 12,296 crore from sale of three slots of BWA radio waves.

The government is auctioning two slots of 20 MHz of pan-India 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.

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 80,015 crore in total.

Today, six rounds of bidding were held which saw Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu bids touching Rs 452.96 crore. The bid for Gujarat circle stood at Rs 444.70 crore.

The price for Kolkata and Punjab circles rose to Rs 196.28 crore, while that for Kerala touched Rs 122.92 crore. Eleven circles saw excessive demand, while nine 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.

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.