The ongoing 3G spectrum auction on Monday reached yet another landmark with the winning provisional price for the pan-India licence crossing Rs. 10,000 crore. At current price, the government's revenue collection from 3G auction alone would cross Rs. 42,000 crore, while its target before the bidding was Rs. 35,000 crore from both 3G and wireless broadband.
At the end of 20th day and after 116 rounds, the winning price touched Rs. 10,348 crore, while on Saturday it was over Rs. 9,920 crore. Mumbai and Delhi circles remained the most-valued circles at Rs. 1,706.07 crore and Rs. 1,653.87 crore, respectively, which is four to five times more than the base price. Both these circles have three slots available for auction.
All leading operators, including Bharti Airtel, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar, are bidding for 3G spectrum for all the 22 telecom circles. Other circles for which the telecom companies are bidding aggressively include Maharashtra (Rs. 1,041 crore) Andhra Pradesh (Rs. 913 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs. 902 crore), Gujarat (Rs. 890 crore) and Karnataka (Rs. 883 crore).
