The auction of wireless broadband (BWA) started on an aggressive note on Monday. The price of pan-India BWA licence at the end of first day of bidding was Rs 2,353 crore. This price is 34 per cent higher than Rs 1,750 crore from which the bidding had started.
There was excess demand in 12 circles, with highest demand for Delhi and Mumbai at six. On the first day of auction five rounds of bidding took place. In the just concluded 3G spectrum, the price of a single licence had reached Rs 16,828 crore, which gave the government a revenue of Rs 67,719 crore.
Even if the price of pan-India BWA licence reached half the price of 3G spectrum, it will mean another bonanza of Rs 25,000 crore for the government.
The auction for BWA spectrum could be more competitive than 3G as there are 11 players in race for two blocks of 20 MHz of spectrum which is on sale.
There were nine operators for the 3 to 4 slots of 3G spectrum. All the major telecom players including Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance, Idea and Tata are in race for the BWA licence. Besides telecos, US based technology major Qualcomm is another serious contender in the race for acquiring BWA spectrum.
The cabinet secretary, Mr K.M. Chandrasekhar, said the unexpected upward revenue generated by the auction of 3G spectrum will bring down the fiscal deficit and cut down Centre’s borrowing plan. The government has projected a fiscal deficit of 5.5 per cent for 2010-11 against an estimated 6.7 per cent in the previous year.
BWA provides high speed internet by wireless means to the consumers. It will help to provided broadband services in areas were there is no wire network available. This will help in the faster roll out of internet services in rural areas, besides saving cost for the service providers.