India’s much-anticipated 2G spectrum auctions got off to a muted start yesterday, with operators seemingly put off from bidding due to high reserve prices.

According to India’s Department of Telecoms (DoT) website, bids for the 1800MHz spectrum on offer had reached just INR17.33 billion (US$317.4 million) in the first day of trading yesterday.

The auction base price is set at INR140 billion (US$2.6 billion) for 5MHz of airwaves across all of India's 22 telecoms zones. The government is aiming to raise INR400 billion (US$7.5 billion).

At least four zones – Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka and Rajasthan – received no bids for spectrum at all, according to the DoT. The government will be particularly concerned about the lack of interest in Delhi and Mumbai, the two key metro zones that were expected to see the most bids.

"We had indicated that there would be several circles that have no bidders. And that's exactly what we have seen," Rajan Mathews of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) told the Wall Street Journal.

The COAI is among those that have criticised the high reserve prices being asked in the auction.

“The only silver lining is that it seems the operators are being rational and not bidding over the odds. The price made it very difficult to justify participating fully, given the state of the wider industry,” Mohammad Chowdhury, head of telecoms at PwC in Mumbai, told the Financial Times.

The airwaves up for grabs were originally sold off in 2008 but the licences awarded then were cancelled by India’s Supreme Court in February, which deemed the earlier process “totally arbitrary and unconstitutional.”

Bidding in the auctions continue tomorrow (Wednesday) – today is a public holiday in India.