All-India 3G bid crosses Rs 9,300 cr; Govt revenues Rs 37k cr

New Delhi, Apr 29 (PTI) In a remarkable response from
the operators, the pan-India bid for 3G spectrum Thursday
touched Rs 9,330 crore on the 17th day of auction and the
focus will from Friday shift to smaller circles.
At this price, the government is assured of revenues of
Rs 37,688 crore against the budget estimate of Rs 35,000
crore.
"The Activity Requirement will be set to 90 per cent
from the current 80," DoT said in an information on its
website, which implies that focus of bids would now shift to
'B' and 'C' category circles.
On Thursday, 100 rounds of auction were completed.
Among individual circles, Mumbai crossed the Rs 1,500
crore and the last bid was quoted at Rs 1,506.41 crore
followed by Delhi with Rs 1,431.20 crore against the reserve
price of Rs 320 crore for both circles.
Earlier in Rajya Sabha (Upper House of Indian
Parliament), India's Telecom Minister A Raja said that
the auction of 3G spectrum is likely to be completed in the
next one or two days.
Nine mobile telephony firms including Bharti, Vodafone,
Reliance and Tatas are in the fray for 3-4 slots of 3G
spectrum that allows subscribers to download hi-speed data and
stream videos on mobile telephones. Radio waves are being
auctioned across 22 circles.
Raja had earlier this week stated that the Government may
garner around Rs 50,000-Rs 55,000 crore by selling 3G airwaves
and Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum.
The successful bidders would be allotted air waves in
September after the spectrum is vacated by the defence forces.
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