NEW DELHI: The value of 3G auction has gone up to over Rs 83.82 billion, a 139.4 per cent rise over the floor price of Rs 35 billion fixed by the government.

As anticipated, the bid for Mumbai has overtaken that of Delhi, and stands at Rs 12.52 billion with the bid for the national capital service region at Rs 12.10 billion at the end of 82 rounds on day 14 today.
 
The rest of Maharashtra peaked at Rs 8.24 billion, with Tamil Nadu at Rs 7.69 billion. Karnataka closed at Rs 7.12 billion, while Andhra Pradesh had a bid of Rs 7.20 billion, and Gujarat closed at Rs 6.51 billion. Kerala rose marginally to Rs 2.64 billion, while Kolkata clocked Rs 2.48 billion respectively.

The bids for some states are expected to rise very little, with no applications for price increment for tomorrow’s round. These include Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, West and East Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and the North-East.

While West Uttar Pradesh clocked Rs 3.10 billion, East Uttar Pradesh had a bid of Rs 2.60 billion, and Punjab stopped at Rs 1.46 billion. Bihar rose marginally to Rs 347.5 million and Rajasthan rose to Rs 2.50 billion.

The bids for some states remained unchanged: Assam and Orissa at Rs 309 million, Madhya Pradesh at Rs 2.36 billion, Haryana at Rs 2.18 billion, West Bengal at Rs 1.24 billion, the North-East at Rs 306 million, and Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh service areas at Rs 300 million each. 
 
The telecom operators in the race are Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Etisalat DB Telecom, Idea Cellular, Reliance, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Videocon Telecommunications and Vodafone Essar.

The successful bidders would be allowed to start commercial 3G operations from 1 September.