NEW DELHI: The 3G auction on its 22nd day of bidding crossed the Rs 100 billion mark with a total figure of Rs 110.47 billion after 128 rounds – rising three times above the floor price of Rs 35 billion.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announced that the activity requirement will be set to 100 per cent in clock round 132.
The bid for Mumbai reached Rs 19.09 billion, ahead of Delhi‘s Rs 18.45 billion.
Karnataka closed at Rs 10.31 billion, Andhra Pradesh at Rs 9.60 billion, and Tamil Nadu at Rs 9.48 billion. Gujarat closed at Rs 9.27 billion, while Kolkata clocked Rs 3.12 billion.
The bids for most service centres are expected to slow down with the auction having come to a virtual end there. These include Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Kolkata, Kerala, Punjab, Haryana, West and East Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Rajasthan, Assam, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh and the North East.
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.
