(1 June 2010 8:40 pm)

NEW DELHI: Even as the auction for Bandwidth Access (BWA) registered a Pan-India total of Rs 79.43 billion which is a rise of more than four times the base price of Rs 17.5 billion, the bidding is getting confined to some of the main service centres with other bids remaining unchanged.

The bid for Delhi and Mumbai touched Rs 11.73 billion each on the seventh day of auction at the end of 52 rounds. Tamil Nadu closed at Rs 10.84 billion, Karnataka at Rs 9.48 billion, the rest of Maharashtra at Rs 8.46 billion, Andhra Pradesh at Rs 8.10 billion, and Gujarat at Rs 4.79 billion.

While Punjab closed at Rs 2.49 billion, Kerala had a bid of Rs 1.67 billion. West Uttar Pradesh had a bid of Rs 1.57 billion, east Uttar Pradesh closed with Rs 864.4 million. Haryana had a bid of Rs 630.4 million, Rajasthan closed at Rs 612 million, and West Bengal closed at Rs 606 million.

The bids for Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, North-East, and Jammu and Kashmir remained unchanged.

Karnataka, Kolkata, Kerala, East Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, and North-East will not see much change with no applications for price increment for tomorrow’s rounds.

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.