NEW DELHI: A spurt in the Bandwidth Access (BWA) auction even as it approaches its end has led to a rise in the bidding over Rs 100 billion to close at a pan-India total of Rs 106.5 billion.
The bid for Mumbai remained the highest after 92 rounds on the 12th day, touching Rs 18.04 billion, higher than the bid in Delhi of Rs 17.58 billion.
Tamil Nadu closed at Rs 16.14 billion, Karnataka at Rs 12.77 billion, Andhra Pradesh at Rs 9.12 billion, and Kolkata at Rs 4.93 billion.
While Punjab closed at Rs 3.13 billion, Kerala was at Rs 2.04 billion.
The bids for three service areas remained unchanged: the rest of Maharashtra at Rs 9.16 billion; Gujarat at Rs 5.72 billion; and West Uttar Pradesh at Rs 1.78 billion.
The rest of Maharashtra, Gujarat, East and West Uttar Pradesh are unlikely to see any increase with no applications for price increment for tomorrow’s rounds.
Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, and North-East will also see only minimal with bids of just over Rs one million each.
The operators 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.
