Will see smile on FM's face: Sibal

Eight telecom operators participated in auction which analysts have already branded as 'competitive'

The union telecom minister, Kapil Sibal today said that the telecom airwaves auctions which netted Rs 61,162 crore in revenue to the government, will bring a smile on face of Finance Minister, P Chidambaram.

Eight telecom operators have participated in the auction which the analysts have already branded as ‘competitive’. The telcos which have to pay in one-third of the bid amount upfront, will get more than Rs 16,000 crore this year. The rest of the amount will be paid in a staggered manner.

“The government will be happy. The auction has been extremely successful. There are several actions that we took for it. One of them is to clear all the doubts of telcos before the auctions,” said Sibal speaking on the auctions.

The government had fixed the spectrum usage charges for telecom operator in an Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM), a week before the auctions.

Sibal also added that apart from the Finance Minister, he would like to see the consumers smile as well. “For that to happen, the service providers are efficient, and keep the prices down,” he said.