India Broadband Bandwidth Auction Price Rises To INR127.75 Bln

10th Jun 2010 15:00

NEW DELHI (Dow Jones)--The bid amount for bandwidth to offer broadband wireless Internet services in India has risen to about INR127.75 billion ($2.73 billion)--more than seven times the base price--for a nation-wide slot at the end of the 15th day of the auction Thursday. The starting price was INR17.50 billion for a slot covering the whole of India. The government is auctioning two slots of bandwidth for broadband services in each of the country's 22 service areas. The auction has so far completed 116 rounds, the Department of Telecommunications said on its website. Bids will start at about INR128.68 billion when the auction resumes Friday. Mumbai was the most sought-after service area, receiving two bids of INR22.73 billion each. Delhi received two bids of INR22.21 billion, while Tamil Nadu got two bids of INR20.49 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 10, 2010 10:00 ET (14:00 GMT)