(20 April 2010 10:35 pm)

NEW DELHI: The bidding for 3G spectrum in at least half of the 22 circles appeared to be coming to a close with no more bids beyond yesterday.

There is little likelihood for any more bids for Western Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Assam, Orissa, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, the north-east, and Bihar.

On the ninth day of auction, bids for a nationwide 3G mobile spectrum licences in India rose 81.5 per cent above the base price to Rs 63.54 billion.

Delhi continued its upward rise at the end of 52 rounds on the ninth day today with a bid of Rs 7.33 billion. Mumbai had a bid of Rs 6.68 billion, while Tamil Nadu peaked at Rs 6.43 billion, and the rest of Maharashtra had a bid of Rs 5.25 billion.

The bid for Gujarat closed at Rs 5.60 billion, only marginally above yesterday’s bid.

The bid for Andhra Pradesh halted at Rs 5.56 billion, lower than Karnataka’s closing bid of Rs 5.72 billion.
Kolkata received a bid of Rs 1.89 billion, only marginally above Monday’s bid. Kerala had a bid of Rs 2.25 billion.

While east Uttar Pradesh closed with a bid of Rs 2.40 billion, west Uttar Pradesh clocked Rs 2.51 billion. Punjab stopped at Rs 1.36 billion and Haryana closed at Rs 2.03 billion.

The bids for some states remained unchanged: West Bengal at Rs 1.24 billion, Madhya Pradesh at Rs 2.23 billion, Rajasthan at Rs 2.20 billion; Assam, Orissa and Jammu & Kashmir service areas and Himachal Pradesh at Rs 300 million each, the north-east at Rs 303 million, and Bihar at Rs 327.6 million.

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.