Reported By:
| Edited By: Nivedita Mookerji |Source: DNA |Updated: Mar 17, 2018, 03:39 AM IST
Gujarat beat Delhi on the fourth day of the 3G (third generation) telecom spectrum auction, with a provisional winning price of Rs 459.52 crore.
Delhi, which has been on top ever since the auction took off, had to be content with the second position at a winning price of Rs 437.65 crore, after 22 rounds of bidding on Tuesday.
Reserve price, set by the government, for metros (except Kolkata) and A circle is Rs 320 crore each.
The maximum pan-India bid price on Tuesday touched Rs 4,582.52 crore, which is 30.9% higher than the reserve price of Rs 3,500 crore, and 5.9% more than the previous highest mark of Rs 4,324.19 crore.
Going by the trend, industry sources said that the 3G auction would continue for at least another week, which would then be followed by the broadband wireless access (BWA) bidding.
The total time taken for 3G and BWA auction could be more than a month.
While Delhi was pushed to the second position by Gujarat, Mumbai continued to be on the last spot in A circle for the second consecutive day.
At the close of play on Tuesday, Mumbai equaled Delhi’s winning price of the previous day at Rs 416.78 crore.
After Gujarat and Delhi were Tamil Nadu (Rs 429.39 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 425.14 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 425.14 crore), Karnataka (Rs 420.94 crore) and Mumbai (Rs 416.78 crore), among the A circle regions.
‘B’ circle also witnessed an upset on Tuesday with Uttar Pradesh (East) pushing Rajasthan to the second spot on Tuesday.
UP East’s provisional winning price was Rs 182.24 crore, against Rajasthan’s Rs 174.22 crore.
West Bengal remained at the lowest rank in B circle with a winning bid price of Rs 123.63 crore, the same as on Monday. Punjab, which had tied with West Bengal at the lowest spot, rose one level on Tuesday at Rs 126.10 crore.
The reserve price for B circle was fixed at Rs 120 crore each.
In C circle, there’s hardly any variation between states. Bihar continues on top at Rs 32.44 crore, while all the rest are at Rs 30 crore each, which is the reserve price in C circle.
The government is targeting to raise Rs 35,000 crore from 3G and BWA auction.
The reserve price set by the government for pan-India 3G spectrum is Rs 3,500 crore for an operator and Rs 1,750 crore for BWA.
The auction process would close once all the circles achieve equilibrium, which is the number of slots available equal the number of bidders.
3G auction would facilitate high-speed mobile services in the country. It is a simultaneous auction of 22 service areas over a secure website.
The auction has multiple rounds, and it could be spread over several weeks.
Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and Aircel are bidding for all-India 3G spectrum. Etisalat, S Tel and Videocon Telecommunications are bidding only for some circles.
