Telecom Lead India: The day one of India’s 2G spectrum auction for wireless operators ended with poor response as the Government received demands for only Rs 9200 crore worth airwaves.
Several telecom industry analysts already predicted that the 2G auction will not receive good response.
However, a part of the industry still feels that Reliance Industries’ presence will be available in the next 1-2 days.
“Around 55 to 60 percent of the total blocks on auction have so far been taken up and total quantum of revenue received till the end of fifth round is a little over Rs 9,200 crore,” said Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar.
Around 33 percent of the total receivables from the auction will come to the government in the first year and the rest will come in 10 equal installments.
Interestingly, there was no demand for lucrative and costly telecom circles like Delhi and Mumbai.
“We said the high reserve price would ensure that limited players come into the bid, and that there would be several circles that would have no bidders. That is exactly what we are seeing now,” said COAI secretary general Rajan S Mathews.
The government had set a reserve price of Rs 14,000 crore for 5 mega hertz of spectrum across all circles, which is seven times what was fixed in 2001.
Industry sources say the present demand will be revived in the next couple of days. The auction will resume on Wednesday.
