The Telecom regulator’s recommendations on spectrum pricing and management, made on Tuesday had negative impact on the ongoing 3G spectrum auction.
A day after the recommendations were made, the pan-India 3G licence rose by Rs 440 crore on Wednesday, as against Rs 552 crore on Tuesday and Rs 622 crore on Monday. It grew by Rs 781 crore on Saturday May 8,Rs 741 crore on Friday, Rs 281 crore on Thursday, Rs 297 crore on Wednesday, Rs 401 crore on Tuesday and Rs 427 crore on Monday.
On day 28, the 3G spectrum attracted a bid of Rs 14,466 crore, registering 313 per cent growth over the base price of Rs 3500 crore set by the government on April 9, 2010.
The trend also indicates that securing spectrum in the seven A circles will cost the operators a whopping Rs 11,619 crore while the government is assured of Rs 57,864 crore from four pan-India licences.
Mumbai continued its forward march, leading at Rs 2,661 crore, followed by Delhi (Rs 2,612 crore), Karnataka (Rs 1,503 crore), Tamil Nadu (Rs 1,394 crore), Maharashtra (Rs 1,209 crore), Andhra Pradesh (Rs 1,194 crore) and Gujarat (Rs 1,044 crore).
Sources in Department of Telecommunications said the time difference between the ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ that bidders would indicate at the end of rounds has increased. “It was significantly slow on Tuesday (May 11,2010) evening and Wednesday,” a DoT official who is part of the bids monitoring team said. However, he refused to clarify if it was due to the Trai recommendations. “The response sometimes had gone slow in a few days earlier too, but, I can only say it was significant in the last one and half days,” sources in DoT said.
With private operators making their unhappiness about the Trai recommendations known, the possibility of an abrupt end to the 3G spectrum cannot be ruled out. As an industry observer asked: "Why would a 2G operator with additional spectrum at his disposal, increase the 3G bids, knowing that they would have to pay higher, if the bid amount goes higher".
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