The government’s revenues from the auction of 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum have crossed Rs 1 lakh crore, with bid price for BWA spectrum in Tamil Nadu and Punjab circles crossing their final 3G bids.
The pan-India BWA licence reached Rs 11,517.85 crore at the end of Day 13 of auction.
With a base price of Rs 160 crore, the bid in the Tamil Nadu circle reached Rs 1,783.33 crore, while its final bid for 3G was Rs 1,464.94 crore (with a base price of Rs 320 crore).
The bid in Punjab (with a base price of Rs 60 crore) reached Rs 332.26 crore, while the final 3G bid stood at Rs 322.01 crore (with a base price of Rs 120 crore).
With two slots for auction, Tamil Nadu had two bidders while Punjab had just one bidder at the end of Day 13.
Mumbai received the highest bid of Rs 1,993.02 crore, followed by Delhi at Rs 1,942.18 crore. Both the circles have a reserve price of Rs 160 crore.
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A total of 10 rounds were completed on the 13th day. The activity level has already been set to 100 per cent.
The revenues from BWA auction, which is expected to end in a few days, reached Rs 34,553.55 crore. The government has already earned Rs 67,719 crore from the recently concluded auction for 3G airwaves. With this, the total revenue stood at Rs 1,02,272.55 crore as of today.
The government had earlier targeted an estimated Rs 35,000 crore from both 3G and BWA auctions.
The auction of 3G spectrum was completed on May 19 after aggressive bidding for 34 days.
BWA spectrum would enable Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) services in laptops and desktops, which would allow consumers to access the Internet at a very high speed.
As many as 11 companies including Bharti Airtel, Reliance WiMax, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Qualcomm, Tata Communications Internet Services, and Vodafone Essar are participating in the BWA auction — a simultaneous online bid for two slots in each of the country’s 22 service areas.
The government has already allocated BWA spectrum to Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd in their respective service areas and both will have to match the winning bid price.