NEW DELHI: After the highly successful conclusion of the 3G auction, the auction for Bandwidth Access (BWA) has commenced with a pan-India total of Rs 23.53 billion. The base price for BWA is Rs 17.5 billion.
Seven service centres – Delhi, Mumbai, rest of Maharashtra, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu – closed their bids on the first day after five rounds on Monday, with Rs 2.33 billion.
Kolkata and Punjab had bids of Rs 878.4 million each while Kerala had a bid of Rs 763.9 million. West Uttar Pradesh had a bid of Rs 729.2 million, with Eastern Uttar Pradesh at Rs 649 million and Madhya Pradesh at Rs 624.2 million.
Haryana, Rajasthan, and West Bengal had bids of Rs 600 million each. Bihar had a bid of Rs 151.5 million while the service centres of Himachal Pradesh, Orissa, Assam, North-east, and Jammu & Kashmir had bids of Rs 150 million each.
The service providers in the race are Aircel, Augere (Mauritius) Limited, Bharti Airtel, Infotel Broadband Services Private Limited, Qualcomm Incorporated, Reliance WiMax Limited, Spice Internet Service, Provider Private Limited, Tata Communications Internet Services Limited, Tikona Digital Networks Private Limited and Vodafone Essar Limited.
The successful bidders would be allowed to start commercial operations from 1 September.
