India Broadband Bandwidth Auction Price Rises To INR115.18B

8th Jun 2010 15:30

NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--The bid amount for bandwidth to offer broadband wireless Internet services in India rose more than six-and-a-half times over the base price for a nation-wide slot at the end of the 13th day of auctions Tuesday. The amount climbed to about INR115.18 billion ($2.45 billion) from the starting price of INR17.50 billion for one slot covering the whole of India, the Department of Telecommunications said on its website. The government is auctioning two slots of bandwidth for broadband services in each of the country's 22 service areas. By the end of Tuesday, 102 rounds of bidding have been completed. Bids will start at about INR116.07 billion when auctions resume Wednesday. Mumbai was the most sought-after service area, receiving three bids of INR19.93 billion each. Delhi received three bids of INR19.42 billion, while Tamil Nadu got two bids of INR17.83 billion. The starting price for a slot in each of these three areas was INR1.60 billion. Eleven companies, including U.S.-based Qualcomm Inc. (QCOM) and top local mobile-telephony providers such as Bharti Airtel Ltd. (532454.BY) and Vodafone Essar Ltd., are participating in the auction. Idea Cellular Ltd. (532822.BY), Aircel Ltd., Tata Communications Ltd. (500483.BY), Augere (Mauritius) Ltd., Infotel Broadband Services Pvt. Ltd., Spice Internet Service Provider Pvt. Ltd., Tikona Digital Networks Pvt. Ltd. and Reliance Communications Ltd.'s (532712.BY) Reliance WiMax Ltd. unit are the other participants. Companies that get the bandwidth will be able to offer high-speed Internet access as well as internet telephony and television services. They can also eventually use the bandwidth for voice and high-speed data services. -By R.Jai Krishna, Dow Jones Newswires, +91.11.4356.3333; [email protected] (END) Dow Jones Newswires June 08, 2010 10:30 ET (14:30 GMT)