(5 June 2010 8:30 pm)

NEW DELHI: Even as the auction for the Bandwidth Access (BWA) appears to be coming to a close, there has been a spurt in the bidding which now stands at a pan-India total of Rs 98.37 billion.

The bid for Mumbai remained the highest after 82 rounds on the eleventh day, touching Rs 16.33 billion, higher than Delhi’s bid of Rs 15.91 billion.

Tamil Nadu closed at Rs 14.62 billion, Karnataka at Rs 11.56 billion, Gujarat at Rs 5.72 billion and Kolkata at Rs 4.46 billion

While Punjab closed at Rs 2.83 billion, West Uttar Pradesh had a bid of Rs 1.78 billion, Kerala was at Rs 1.84 billion and East Uttar Pradesh at Rs 992.9 million. Madhya Pradesh closed at Rs 890.9 million, while Haryana had a bid of Rs 847.9 million, Rajasthan closed at Rs 738.3 million, and West Bengal was bid for Rs 612 million.

Bihar closed at Rs 202.6 million; Orissa and Assam at Rs 178.6 million each; and Himachal Pradesh, North-East, and Jammu and Kashmir at Rs 151.5 million each.

The bids for two states remained unchanged: the rest of Maharashtra at Rs 9.16 billion; and Andhra Pradesh at Rs 9.03 billion.

Himachal Pradesh, Assam, Jammu and Kashmir, and North-East will also see only minimal rise with bids of just over Rs one million each.

The telecom 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.