The revenue from the sale of 3G spectrum today crossed the Rs 51,000-crore mark as the bid price for a national licence rose to Rs 12,851 crore on Day 25 of the auction.
At the current all-India bid price, the government is assured of at least Rs 51,833 crore over an estimated revenue of Rs 35,000 crore from sale of spectrum for 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) services.
Today’s auction saw the highest-ever single day jump in revenue so far at Rs 3,156 crore.
On the basis of yesterday’s price, the government’s assured revenue stood at Rs 48,677 crore. The all-India 3G licence reserve price is Rs 3,500 crore.
Mumbai continued to lead the pack at Rs 2,316 crore, followed by Delhi circle at Rs 2,209 crore, while Karnataka came in third at Rs 1,374.51 crore today.
At the end of 143 rounds of auction, there was excess demand in all the circles, indicating the bid is set to rise further.
Gujarat, which had pipped Delhi as the most valued circle in the earlier rounds, has been losing its attraction lately, having slipped to the seventh position today in terms of bid value at Rs 1,023.86 crore.
As per the latest data on the department of telecom’s website, Maharashtra, which saw negative demand, had the fourth highest bid price of Rs 1,127.47 crore, followed by Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh at Rs 1,171.75 crore and Rs 1,070.84 crore at the end of the 25th day.
Telecom minister Andimuthu Raja had recently stated that the government may garner Rs 50,000-55,000 crore by selling 3G airwaves and BWA spectrum.
Uttar Pradesh (West), Kolkata and Uttar Pradesh (East) saw bid prices rising to Rs 374 crore, Rs 351.79 crore and Rs 276.05 crore, respectively.
Category C circles like Haryana, Rajasthan, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Northeast and J&K continue to see negative demand.
In all, nine mobile operators are up against each other for spectrum for 3G services, which allows subscribers to download hi-speed data and stream videos on mobile phones.
The radio waves are being auctioned across 22 circles.
