3G bids up 24 p.c. from base on third day

NEW DELHI, INDIA: On the third day of the third-generation (3G) wireless spectrum auction, the bids rose further with one provisional winning bid for national cover touching 4324.19 crore rupees ($972 million), or about 24 per cent higher than the base price, for a single nation-wide licence, government data showed on Monday. 16 rounds of bidding have been completed by Monday.

Slots for between three and four players are available in each of the 22 circles into which the country has been geographically divided for these services which will facilitate much faster data, voice and video communications.

The government has already given Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) spectrum for 3G services on the condition that they will pay the same licence fee as would be levied on private players after the auction.

Along with the fee that will be eventually paid by the two state-run enterprises for the licences, the government will provisionally get Rs.17,635.52 crore ($3.91 billion) from the auction, which, so far, is well below the projected earning of Rs.30,000 crore.

This is on the presumption that every available slot gets filled at the provisionally approved price.

The Delhi circle continued to attract the highest price of 416.43 crore, even as one additional player was still in the fray for the three available slots. Gujarat was next with Rs.416.42 crore, with two additional players left in the fray.

Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, Orissa and West Bengal could not attract a single player.

Nine telecom companies are participating in the online auction process - Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Aircel, Etisalat, S Tel and Videocon Telecommunications.

A reserve price of Rs.3,500 crore has been fixed for a pan-India spectrum. It is a simultaneous auction of 22 circles over a secure website. At each round, the price is hiked from between 10-1 percent based on demand.

The auction is being held from 9 a.m. to 7.30 p.m. on all days, except Sundays and national holidays. The process will end only when the demand is equal to the number of slots available in each circle.

According to a senior DoT official, it is difficult to set a time-frame for the 3G bidding. "It may take two weeks, or may stretch for a month also," the official said.

The bid data, including the winning companies' names, will be made public after the auction's completion and approval by the government. The winning firms will have to deposit the money within 10 days after the auction.

The successful bidders would be allowed to offer 3G services on a commercial basis from Sep 1.

The 3G services will allow faster connectivity than what is available now and enable applications such as Internet TV, video-on-demand, audio-video calls and high-speed data exchange.

©IANS