The government has received a lukewarm response for the fourth cellular operator berths with only seven companies evincing interest on the last day for submitting bids for 21 circles, including the four metro circles.
While Reliance accounted for 30 of the total 57 bids, companies including HFCL, ModiCorp and Shyam Telecom stayed out of the race. The newly-formed cellular behemoth, BPL Birla-AT&T-Tata, has bid for just three circles.
Multinational companies also were conspicuous by their relative absence. There were no new companies in the fray.
Of the 21 telecom circles for which bids were invited, only 17 circles attracted bids. Except for Himachal Pradesh for which Escotel has placed a bid, none of the other C circles including Bihar, Orissa, West Bengal and North-east elicited a response.
According to analysts, this time around even the lucrative metro circles are unlikely to fetch fancy valuations like they did in 1995 when the sector was opened up. While four companies bid for Delhi and Chennai, Mumbai and Kolkata got three each.
Surprisingly, Punjab which is a Circle B state received 4 bids, primarily because the new entrant will essentially be the second operator as only Spice is operating there currently.
The government, however, in a press statement played down the lacklustre response.
