India’s Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum auctions closed today after 16 days and 117 rounds of bidding, netting the government an estimated INR257 billion (US$5.5 billion). According to an official statement by India’s Department of Telecoms this morning, the big winners were fixed-line service provider Infotel, which paid INR128.48 billion for licenses in all 22 of India’s service areas; and Aircel, which won eight regional licenses for INR34.38 billion. Eleven companies in total competed for two bandwidth slots in each of the 22 service areas. The bandwidth is suitable for technologies such as WiMAX. The BWA auctions followed the completion of the 3G auctions in the country last month, which raised around INR677.2 billion but did not result in any operator obtaining a pan-Indian 3G footprint.

Among the other winners of note in the BWA auctions was US chip-maker Qualcomm, which secured spectrum in four service areas, including in Delhi and Mumbai, the two most expensive zones. The vendor has said previously it plans to use the spectrum for deployment of TD-LTE technology, a move that appears to be an attempt to derail the mobile WiMAX community (the technology normally associated with the spectrum). It is also in the process of finding an Indian partner to help build-out its new network. Reports in April said that Qualcomm had formed a joint venture with GTL, an Indian network services and infrastructure provider. Meanwhile, Indian mobile market leader Bharti also acquired BWA spectrum in four zones. Click here for the official DoT auction report. In separate news, Reliance Industries, India’s largest-listed conglomerate, is in talks to buy BWA license winner Infotel Broadband Services as it looks to enter the telecoms sector, according to a Reuters report today.