The 3G spectrum auctions which got underway on April 09, 2010 were finally completed on Wednesday with the 22 circles witnessing a mix of successful bidders and no operator emerging as a pan-India operator.
At the end of 183 rounds of auctioning, a total of 7 operators bagged mix of circles to offer 3G services.
India’s number one operator, Bharti Airtel successfully bid for 13 circles including metro circles, Mumbai and Delhi as well as some prime category ‘A’ circles. Fierce competitor, Reliance Communications too bagged metros. But the operator rather opted for category ‘C’ circles than to fight for category ‘A’ circles.
While there is no pan-India operator at the completion of the auctions, the effective pan-India price peaked to Rs.16,750.6 crore. The government will make Rs.67,719 crore by way of auctioning the 3G spectrum.
Bharti will have to pay Rs.12,295.5 crore for the 13 circles where it has emerged as successful bidder while Vodafone Essar will have to pay Rs.11,617.9 crore. Corresponding figures for RCom is Rs.8,585.1 crore, Aircel Rs.6,499.5 crore, TTSL Rs.5,864.3 crore, Idea Rs.5,768.6 crore and STel Rs. 337.7 crore.
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