All nine telecom players, including state-owned BSNL and MTNL, have paid Rs. 67,719 crore to the government as fee for 3G spectrum. While seven players — Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communication, Vodafone Essar, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and S Tel — had bagged spectrum in e-auction, BSNL and MTNL got the radio waves earlier and their share was decided as per the amount reached at the completion of the bidding process. Bharti Airtel paid the highest Rs. 12,295.46 crore for 3G spectrum for 13 circles, followed by Vodafone Rs. 11,617.86 crore for nine circles, Reliance Communication Rs. 8,585.04 crore for 13 circles, Tata Teleservices paid Rs. 5,864.29 crore for nine nine circles and Idea Cellular paid Rs. 5,768.59 crore for 11 circles.
Similarly, Aircel and S Tel have paid their respective bid amounts for the telecom circles won. BSNL has paid Rs. 10,186.56 crore for the pan-India radio waves, except for Delhi and Mumbai where MTNL has the spectrum and it paid Rs. 6,564 crore to the government.
Winning bid amount of each circle varies, with highest being that of Delhi and Mumbai at Rs. 3,316.93 crore and Rs. 3,247.07 crore respectively, while the least being that of Jammu and Kashmir at Rs. 30.30 crore.
