Revenue from BWA auction at Rs.15,735 crore
May 28th, 2010 - 10:44 pm ICT by IANSNew Delhi, May 28 (IANS) The Indian government’s provisional revenue from the sale of airwaves for broadband wireless access (BWA) services Friday reached Rs.15,735.30 crore ($3.4 billion) and the pan-India licence price was Rs.5,245.1 crore ($1.13 billion).
India Friday concluded a total of 24 rounds of the auction of airwaves for BWA services.
The auction, which began Monday, saw the pan-India BWA licence price going up around 200 percent from the Rs.1,750 crore base price fixed by the government.
BWA spectrum is essential for rolling out Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) services enabling hand-held devices and laptops to access the Internet.
The spectrum will allow the companies to offer high-speed Internet access as well as Internet telephony and television services. It can also be used for voice and high-speed data services.
As many as 11 companies — Bharti Airtel, Reliance WiMax, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Augere Mauritius Limited, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks and Vodafone Essar — are participating in the BWA auction.
It is a simultaneous online auction for two slots in each of the country’s 22 service areas.
According to the latest information available on the website of department of telecommunications (DoT), Delhi, Mumbai, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka each attracted the bid of Rs.612.96 crore with more players in the fray than the number of slots available.
However, 13 circles, including Punjab, Gujarat, Haryana, Rajasthan, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir could not attract enough bidders.
The government has already allocated one block of 20 MHz of unpaired spectrum each to Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in their respective service areas.
The two state-run firms will have to pay the winners’ price.
The successful bidders in this auction can use the assigned frequency for commercial purposes immediately after they get the spectrum, the DoT has said.
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- Auction for BWA begins; Rs.15,000 crore expected - May 24, 2010
- Pan-India BWA licence price up at Rs.2,353 crore (Lead) - May 24, 2010
- Government asks 3G auction winners to pay by May 31 - May 21, 2010
- Broadband auction winners to pay up license fee by June 22 - Jun 12, 2010
- India's broadband airwaves auction to fetch $8.6 billion (Roundup) - Jun 11, 2010
- India reaps billions from BWA auction, biggies stay away (Lead) - Jun 11, 2010
- Auction of broadband airwaves starts Saturday - May 19, 2010
- Delhi attracts highest bids on second day of 3G spectrum auction - Apr 10, 2010
- Auction for broadband wireless services to begin Monday - May 21, 2010
Tags: aircel, bharat sanchar nigam, bharat sanchar nigam ltd, communications internet services, digital networks, high speed data, high speed data services, high speed internet, high speed internet access, internet service provider, internet telephony, jammu and kashmir, licence price, mahanagar telephone nigam ltd, mtnl, mumbai maharashtra, online auction, sanchar nigam ltd, vodafone essar, worldwide interoperability