India today closed its auction for 3G spectrum after 34 days, and 183 rounds, of intense bidding. Subject to approval by the government (which may come as soon as tomorrow), Aircel, Reliance and Bharti appear to be the biggest winners, each gaining spectrum in 13 circles. Idea has provisionally won spectrum in 11 circles, whilst Tata and Vodafone have won spectrum in nine circles. The provisional winning price for one slot of bandwidth to offer 3G mobile services across India is INR167.51 billion (US$3.70 billion), Department of Telecommunications (DoT) spokesman Satyendra Prakash told the Wall Street Journal. The starting bid price for a pan-India slot was INR35 billion. Significantly though, no single operator appears to have gained 3G access to all of the country’s circles. Prakash added that the government is set to raise INR677.19 billion from the auctions, nearly double the INR350 billion that the government estimated in its federal budget. Other initial reports state Bharti and Reliance spent INR123 billion and INR85.9 billion, respectively. Vodafone reportedly spent INR116.2 billion.
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