The government would earn a minimum of Rs 34,650 crore from the auction of 3G telecom spectrum, with the pan-India licence reaching a bid of about Rs 8,662.45 crore on the 15th day, up by over 147 per cent from the base price of Rs 3,500 crore.
This means, the government would be able to achieve its target of Rs 35,000 crore from the 3G auction only, which it had earlier set from the auction of both 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.
Out of a total of 22 circles for the 3G spectrum, 17 have three slots, while in rest of the five circles, four blocks of spectrum are available.
Auction for BWA will start after two days of the close of 3G auction, which started on April 9.
Last week, Communications and IT Minister A Raja said in Parliament that the government revenues from the auction may go up to Rs 50,000 crore.
The highest bid price in Mumbai reached Rs 1,329.34 crore, over four times the base price of Rs 320 crore. Delhi’s highest bid price reached Rs 1284.04 crore, a three-fold increase from the base price of Rs 320 crore.
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Both Mumbai and Delhi circle have three slots available for auction. On the 15th day, Mumbai had three bidders, while Delhi had four.
A total of 88 rounds were completed till the 15th day. It is expected that the 3G auctions would take another week to complete.
Six existing major telecom service providers — Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and Aircel — are vying for 3G spectrum in all the 22 circles.