(17 April 2010 11:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: After the end of the seventh day, a total of 40 rounds were completed in the 3G auction. The All-India price had reached Rs 57.10 billion, or 63 per cent up from the base price of Rs 35 billion.

Even as the bid for Delhi circle took a major leap rising from Rs 5.13 billion to Rs 6.26 billion, the bid for Gujarat slowed down and rose to Rs 5.33 billion at the end today.

The bids for Tamil Nadu and the rest of Maharashtra rose to Rs 5.49 billion and Rs 5.33 billion respectively. Mumbai also saw a steep rise to Rs 5.99 billion, while the bids for Andhra Pradesh, which had leveled with Mumbai yesterday, halted at Rs 4.93 billion.

Kolkata received a bid of Rs 1.74 billion, rising marginally over the bid of Rs 1.67 billion yesterday.

Meanwhile, Karnataka with Rs 5.08 billion remained the only other state to cross the figure of Rs 5 billion.

While east Uttar Pradesh closed with a bid of Rs 2.29 billion, west Uttar Pradesh clocked Rs 2.26 billion. Rajasthan clocked Rs 2.21 billion while Madhya Pradesh had a bid of Rs 2.18 billion.

The bids for some states remained unchanged: Assam, Orissa and Jammu & Kashmir service areas and Himachal Pradesh at Rs 300 million each, and of the north-east at Rs 303 million for the second day today, while Bihar rose marginally to Rs 327.6 million from Rs 324.4 million yesterday.

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.