(3 June 2010 9:10 pm)

NEW DELHI: Even as the activity requirement for the Bandwidth Access (BWA) auction completed 90 per cent on the ninth day, the bid registered a Pan-India total of Rs 89.8 billion, higher than five times the base price of Rs 17.5 billion.

The bidding remained confined to some of the main service centres with other bids remaining unchanged at the end of round 68. The bid for Mumbai touched Rs 14.04 billion, higher than Delhi’s bid of Rs 13.85 billion.

Tamil Nadu closed at Rs 12.73 billion, Karnataka at Rs 10.06 billion, Andhra Pradesh at Rs 9.03 billion, Gujarat at Rs 5.61 billion, Punjab at Rs 2.81 billion, West Uttar Pradesh at Rs 1.77 billion, Kerala at Rs 1.69 billion, Madhya Pradesh at Rs 775.7 million, Haryana at Rs 738.3 million, Rajasthan at Rs 682.2 million, Bihar at Rs 176.9 million, Orissa at Rs 162.1 million, and Assam closed at Rs 156 million.

The bids for the rest of Maharashtra, Kolkata, east Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, North-East, and Jammu and Kashmir remained unchanged.

Thirteen service centres – the rest of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Kolkata, Kerala, Punjab, West and East Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Himachal Pradesh, 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.