Telecom Lead Asia: Sistema Shyam Teleservices (MTS India) has bagged 2G licenses for 8 circles.
MTS India was looking for 10 circles as per its earlier decision to cut down Indian operations.
These 8 telecom circles include Delhi, Kolkata, Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttar Pradesh (West) & West Bengal.
Total cost for the 2G license for a period of 20 years will be Rs 3,639 crore. MTS India will pay Rs 1,626 crore as the initial payment, while the balance Rs 2,013 crore will be paid in 10 annual installments starting March 2016. Starting from March 2016, SSTL will pay Rs 200 crore in 10 annual installments.
Today, SSTL was the only bidder for bagging licenses. Telecom operators including Reliance Jio Infocomm, Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices did not participate in the spectrum auction as most of them considered the reserve or auction start price set by the government as too high.
Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar said the auction ended in just three rounds with lone bidder SSTL putting in bids at the minimum bid price, which had already been cut by about half after no companies bid for the band in November.
PTI reported that the Indian government may not get any upfront payment as Rs 1,626 crore has to be adjusted against the license fee SSTL had paid in 2008. The licences cancelled by apex court included 21 of SSTL.
The auction results may dampen Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s efforts to garner a reduced Rs 19,400 crore from spectrum sale this fiscal. He had previously targeted Rs 40,000 crore from spectrum auction to cut budget deficit.
The spectrum auction in November 2012 also flopped as it drew five bidders and government received Rs 9,407 crore.
