The government's revenue from the sale of spectrum for 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) is set to cross Rs 1 lakh crore with a pan-India bid for BWA touching Rs 10,652 crore on the 12th day of the auction today.
At this bid amount, the government will earn Rs 31,956 crore from the sale of BWA spectrum alone.
The government had projected just Rs 35,000 crore from the sale of spectrum for both 3G and BWA put together. Having already garnered Rs 67,719 crore from 3G spectrum sale alone, the total revenue stood at a whopping Rs 99,675 crore as of today.
Among the individual circles, Mumbai received the highest bid of Rs 1,804.30 crore, followed by Delhi at Rs 1,758.29 crore. Tamil Nadu comes third with bid of Rs 1,614.48 crore.
The value of the Karnataka circle touched Rs 1,277.48 crore today, while that of Maharashtra hit Rs 915.64 crore.
According to sources in the DoT, the auction for BWA spectrum is likely to continue for a few more days.
After the 92nd round of bidding, many circles, including Delhi and Mumbai, and various category B and C circles witnessed excess demand.
Besides Delhi and Mumbai, there is excess demand in the Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Haryana, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Northeast and J&K circles.
The government is auctioning two slots of 20 MHz of pan- India BWA spectrum. BSNL and MTNL, which have already been given BWA spectrum ahead of private players, will have to pay the equivalent of the winning bid in each service area.
As many as 11 companies are bidding for BWA spectrum.
Apart from Bharti Airtel, RCom, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Vodafone and Tata Communications Internet Services, the BWA aspirants include four new players -- Augere, Tikona Wireless, Infotel Broadband Services and Qualcomm-- and Spice Internet and Infotel.
The BWA spectrum allows companies to offer high-speed Internet access as well as Internet telephony and TV services.
It can also be used for voice and high-speed data services
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