Telecom Lead India: Vodafone India has emerged as the top winner with 15 wins in the 2G spectrum auction that concluded on Wednesday. Airtel has bagged just one circle – Assam.
But Telenor, the Norwegian telecom giant, has clinched significant circles. It won in 6 circles such as Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh East and Uttar Pradesh West.
Telenor has spent around Rs 4,018 crore.
Videocon Telecommunications’ investment for spectrum is around Rs 2,222 crore.
Investment of Idea Cellular was Rs 2,031.31 crore.
Vodafone’s payout for 15 circles will be around Rs 1,093.28 crore.
Airtel paid Rs 8.67 crore for winning Assam circle.
Vodafone India has bagged 15 telecom circles such as Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Orissa, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West and West Bengal.
The participation of Vodafone in a significant way was unexpected. Idea Cellular was anticipated to big aggressively.
Idea Cellular won in 8 circles including Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kerala, Kolkata, North East, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.
Read: Full list of circles and winners and bid amaount here.
Government will receive Rs 9400 crore as spectrum fee against its target of Rs 40,000 crore.
The 2G auction will not bring cheers to telecom equipment vendors such as Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel-Lucent, Nokia Siemens, Ericsson, etc. as several operators did not participate. Next year’s network expansion will be cautious due to the investment in spectrum.
Meanwhile, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is expected to make a fresh reference to sector regulator Trai on spectrum pricing, after the flop show of 2G auctions which finished this evening, CNBC-TV18 reported.
Rajan Mathews of COAI has welcomed the government’s move to make a fresh reference to Trai, saying this would give credence to future spectrum allocation.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal suggested that there was danger in linking 2010 prices to the 2G auctions of 2012, saying the ministry went entirely by what TRAI had recommended as far as spectrum pricing was concerned.
editor@telecomlead.com
