Business
Spectrum auction: Day 11 sees bids of Rs.103,046 crore
New Delhi, March 16
The government received
commitments of Rs.103,046 crore from telecom operators at the end of
bidding on Monday, the 11th day of radio frequency spectrum e-auctions.
"The
bidding is taking place in all bands. Brisk bidding was seen on 11th
day of bidding, with activity requirement set at 100 percent. There is
robust bidding going on in 1800 MHz, 900 MHz and 800 MHz bands," the
Department of Telecom (DoT) said in a statement here.
Six fresh rounds of bidding were seen on Day 11.
"At
the end of 67th round, more than 87 percent of the spectrum has been
provisionally allocated to bidders. The provisional amount committed by
bidders at the end of 67th round is Rs.103,046 crore," it said.
"Majority
of service areas are going at a premium over reserve price. The
competitive bidding is expected to continue. There is still spectrum,
which is yet to be sold. Bidding would recommence tomorrow, that is,
March 17, 2015 at 9 a.m," the statement added.
Day 10 saw Rs.102,215 crore commitment from telecom operators at the end of bidding after 61 rounds.
The
commitments come over and above the Rs.200,000 crore that India Inc has
already bid under the two phases of auctions for award of coal blocks.
But the proceeds from this auction will go to the respective state
governments over 30 years.
The central government has budgeted
for Rs.43,161.72 crore from e-auctions of spectrum for the current
fiscal while the reserve price for the entire spectrum on offer in the
four bands, across India, was around Rs.80,000 crore.
The bids so far have well exceeded these numbers.
The
maximum bids of 85 were received for Tamil Nadu circle with a winning
amount of Rs.45 crore per block in the 1800 MHz band. However, this
circle saw 10 less bids.
The second highest bids of 75 were
received for Punjab circle with a winning amount of Rs.72.15 crore per
block in the 900 MHz band. This circle also saw three less bids.
The
eight telecom service providers participating in the auctions are
Reliance Communications, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India,
Tata Teleservices, Uninor, Idea Cellular and Aircel.
They have submitted earnest money of Rs.20,435 crore, which is two and a half times what had been called for.
The
total spectrum put up for auction is 103.75 MHz in 800 MHz band, 177.8
MHz in 900 MHz band and 99.2 MHz in 1,800 MHz band for second generation
(2G) telephony.The government has also put up 5 MHz in the 2,100 MHz
band for third generation (3G) telephony.
A reserve price of
Rs.3,423 crore per MHz was fixed for 800 MHz frequency, Rs.3,399 crore
for 900 MHz band and Rs.1,425 crore for the 1,800 MHz band. The
government also fixed a reserve price of Rs.3,511 crore per megahertz
for the frequency for 3G spectrum.