Tuesday, August 31, 2010
INDIA -3G Auction Arrives
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The government will collect Rs67,719 crore as its share of the booty from seven successful bidders, with Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar bagging the most lucrative circles. The two biggest cities in India, Delhi and Mumbai, will see 3G services being launched by Vodafone, Bharti and Reliance Communications.
According to operators, they are likely to start work on network planning and installation as soon as the provisional spectrum allocations are confirmed on payment of the requisite bid amounts.
“The frequencies on which we have to operate have already been disclosed as part of the announcement. That means we can start design and testing as early as we want,” said an official from one of the winning bidders. According to industry sources, proper services are likely to start as early as six months from now, or by November, in some cities.
To take advantage of the new offerings, however, consumers must possess handsets with 3G capabilities, or the 10-25 times faster 3.5G, or HSPA handsets. Most handsets priced above Rs8,000 in the market, such as the Nokia N Series, already have in-built 3G capabilities.
State-owned operators MTNL and BSNL already offer 3G services such as video-calling, which is priced around 20 to 50 paise per minute. Such services have been in vogue for several years in Japan and Europe, the pioneers of 3G. The US and China, too, have seen the launch of such high-speed networks in the last two years.
In all, 71 3G slots were allocated over 22 telecom divisions in the country. Bharti Airtel was the most aggressive, cornering 13 ‘circles’ for a total bid price of Rs12,295 crore, including all five of the most expensive circles. It was followed by Vodafone, which will shell out Rs11,618 crore over the next 10 days to ensure its 3G entry into nine circles, including the most premium ones.
Reliance Communications came next; it will pay Rs8,585 crore to confirm its allocation in 13 circles, some of them belonging to less lucrative circles such as Bihar and West Bengal. The fourth largest ‘spender’ was Chennai-based Aircel Cellular, controlled by the Malaysia-based Maxis group. It too got 13 circles, for Rs6,500 crore.
The prices at which the spectrum has been allotted are nearly twice the figure of Rs35,000 crore expected in the Union budget. The extra Rs33,000 crore, along with proceeds of the yet-to-start Wimax spectrum auction, will help the government reduce its fiscal deficit.
AUCTION RESULT-
The Auction results are provisional and subject to approval by the Government.
The following table provides the summary of the auction results:
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This post was written by: Franklin Manuel
Franklin Manuel is a professional blogger, web designer and front end web developer. Follow him on Twitter
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2 Responses to “INDIA -3G Auction Arrives”
September 5, 2010 at 2:47 PM
No Celluloid?
December 17, 2010 at 7:07 AM
thats good
i need to buy cellphone
whos the best phone in the world now
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