A week after the 3G spectrum auction began in India the country has seen a huge jump of 63% for pan-India licences. The bid has bumped up Rs. 5,710.36 crore (Rs 57.10 billion) over the base price. This implies total minimum revenue of Rs. 22,841 crore (Rs 228.41 billion). As the numbers roll in, Delhi is turning out to be the high-priced circle at a bid value of Rs 626.37 crore (Rs 6.26 billion), followed by Mumbai at a bid of Rs 598.59 crore (Rs 5.98 billion). Gujarat, which was ahead of Delhi in the initial rounds, now stands fourth at Rs 533.40 crore (Rs 5.33 billion). It is preceded by Tamil Nadu at a bid price of Rs 549.24 crore (Rs 5.49 billion). These are the figures at the end of 40 rounds. Six of these rounds were held on Sunday.
Major mobile operators have planned well for the 3G auction in India so they can outdo the others in this battle of bids for the spectrum. Three biggies of the Indian telecom industry have put in their applications for one of the three slots that are available for bids. All companies that had submitted applications to take part in April's 3G and broadband wireless access spectrum auctions have received approval from India's Department of Telecommunications.
After studying the pre-qualification data such as the size of the upfront deposit, the picture is becoming clearer as to who plans to bid for pan-India spectrum. This will mean bidding for spectrum across all of India's 22 mobile service areas or as it is technically called ‘circles’. Out of 9 companies that are bidding in the auction, 6 have placed their bid for a pan-India spectrum. Among the major players in race for spectrum in the 2.1GHz band are some major telecom operators of India. Apart from this, many other mobile operators are bidding for selective circles. Many of these companies will also be bidding for spectrum in the 2.3GHz band under broadband wireless access (BWA). All of them will be vying against each other to pick countrywide airwaves.
Unlike other countries, India took way too long to announce their date of auction, almost three years. This can be attributed to the slow decision-making, something we all are familiar with in India. Apart from the mobile operators, customers also lost out on many benefits due to the delay. The delay deprived them of the benefits of high-speed mobile data services used by many across the globe. Once 3G is rolled out, customers will get to enjoy bandwidth intensive services. 3G will enable high-speed data transfer for services such as live video streaming and other graphic formats. It is also hoped that rural India will also benefit from the coming of 3G. Areas such as telemedicine, virtual marketplace and e-learning will get a boost. As the day of 3G auction nears, we can only hope that all that 3G promises will finally be delivered, though a bit late.
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