India raises $9.9 billion from telecoms spectrum auction - minister

MUMBAI (Reuters) - India's telecoms spectrum auction ended on Thursday, raising the government 657.89 billion rupees ($9.86 billion), Telecoms Minister Manoj Sinha said.

The minister told reporters the government expected to get about 320 billion rupees of the spectrum payments initially as carriers are allowed to pay in installments.

The government exceeded its budget estimates of 645.81 billion rupees from the spectrum auction.

However, the auction proceeds were far below the total value of the spectrum pegged at 5.6 trillion rupees as less than half of the spectrum found takers.

($1 = 66.7489 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Rupam Jain; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)