Gujarat surpassed Delhi to emerge as the most valuable circle with a bid of Rs 460 crore, while the all-India licence price increased to Rs 4,583 crore on the fourth day of 3G spectrum auction on Tuesday.

The all-India bid on Day 4 rose to Rs 4,583 crore, 31 per cent higher than the base price of Rs 3,500 crore.

With this, the government would garner at least Rs 18,332 crore, up by Rs 1,036 crore since yesterday.

Yesterday, the the all-India licence bid had touched Rs 4,324 crore.

At the end of six rounds of auction, Gujarat has emerged has the most valuable circle at Rs 460 crore, surpassing Delhi at Rs 438 crore.

While bid price for Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra rose to Rs 425.14 crore, Rs 429.39 crore and Rs 425.14 crore, respectively, Karnataka remained ahead of Mumbai at Rs 420.94. Mumbai saw bid at Rs 416.78 crore.

Kolkata saw no increase in its bid price at Rs 157.80 crore with negative demand. Kerala's bid price touched Rs 159.37 crore, the same as the one for UP (W).

Punjab at Rs 126.10 crore, Haryana Rs 144.32 crore, West Bengal Rs 123.63 crore, Himachal Pradesh Rs 30 crore, Orissa Rs 30 crore, Assam, North East and J&K (Rs 30 crore each) saw negative demand.

Bihar bid price stayed at the almost at the same level at Rs 32.44 crore since yesterday bidding.

The government is auctioning three slots of 3G airwaves in 17 telecom service areas. Only two slots are up for sale across the country for broadband airwaves, which will begin after the conclusion of the 3G auctions.

On the first day of auction on April 9, the pan-India licence was 12 per cent higher than the base price of Rs 3,500 crore.

Earlier report:

3G bid rises to Rs 4,324 cr on third day; Delhi, Guj get highest bids

The third day of spectrum auction for 3G telephony saw the all-India licence bid touching Rs 4,324 crore at the end of 16 rounds, ensuring that the government would get a minimum of Rs 17,636 crore.

With today's closing, the bid has gone up nearly 24 per cent more than the base price of Rs 3,500 crore and 5.85 per cent higher than Rs 4,085 crore in the last round on Saturday.

The government has set a target of garnering up to Rs 35,000 crore from sale of spectrum for 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) services.

The Rs 416.43-crore bid for Delhi was the highest among all metros. The bid for Gujarat at Rs 416.42 crore almost matched the one for Delhi, according to details available with the Department of Telecom (DoT).

The bid for Gujarat also saw the highest increase of Rs 20.82 crore from the last round of auction on Saturday.

Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra saw bids rising to Rs 404.54 crore, while that for Karnataka was Rs 396.58 crore ahead of Mumbai at Rs 392.66 crore.

The bid for Rajasthan was Rs 159.47 crore, UP (E) Rs 157.66 crore, Kolkata, Kerala Rs 150.16 crore each, Madhya Pradesh Rs 149.02 crore, Haryana Rs 140.09 crore and Punjab Rs 123.63 crore.

There were negative demands in nine circles -- West Bengal, HP, Bihar, Orissa, Assam, North East, J&K and Haryana.

Excess demands were seen for eight circles with the maximum being for UP (E). These circles did not see any increase in their bid price since Friday.

The government is auctioning three slots of 3G airwaves in 17 telecom service areas. Only two slots are up for sale across the country for broadband airwaves, which will begin after the conclusion of the 3G auctions.

On Friday, the first day of the 3G spectrum sale process, the government had received bids worth a total of Rs 3,919 crore for a pan India licence- this was 12% higher than the base price of Rs 3,500 crore.

Earlier report:

3G auction bid rises to Rs 4,085 cr on day 2

The second day of the 3G auction today saw a marginal increase in bidding activity with an all-India licence bid price touching Rs 4,085 crore.

Five rounds of bidding were held today, taking the total number of completed auction rounds reaching 10, according to the data provided by the department of telecom.

Yesterday, the national 3G licence winning price was pegged at Rs 3,913.81 crore, against the reserve price of Rs 3,500 crore.

The Delhi circle continued to see huge response from the bidders with the winning price touching Rs 392.31 crore at the end of the bidding process today.

This was followed by Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh at Rs 381.13 crore each. Gujarat saw the highest demand during the second round with winning price of Rs 377.36 crore.

Though Karnataka matched Gujarat in terms of winning bid price (Rs 377.36 crore), the demands were less compared to Gujarat.

Kolkata had a winning bid price of Rs 140-142.90 crore-- the lowest among the metro circles, followed by Kerala (Rs 141.49 crore) Punjab (Rs 122.41 crore).

Uttar Pradesh (East) and (West) fetched winning price of at Rs 142.90 crore each while, Rajasthan saw a higher price than UP at Rs 144.54 crore followed by Madhya Pradesh at Rs 140.41 crore.

Category C-circle like Bihar, Assam, Orissa and Northeast continued to see negative demand. Haryana also saw negative demand at a winning bid price of Rs 135.99 crore.

Earlier report:

12 pc higher bids for pan-India 3G spectrum on Day 1 of auction

The government on Friday kicked off the spectrum auction for the third generation telephony and participation of majors, like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, saw 12 per cent higher bids at Rs 3,913.81 crore than the base price.

Starting at the base of Rs 3,500 crore, nine major participants raised the bids. According to information posted on DoT website, five rounds of auction were completed on day one.

Delhi circle, for which the reserve price is set at Rs 320 crore, generated the maximum interest from bidders with the winning prices at the end of round five being Rs 373.29 crore. Mumbai and Maharashtra were a close second at Rs 362.66 crore each. Nine circles saw negative demands. The quotes are provisional.i

Category A circles like Gujarat, AP, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu also saw aggressive bidding on par with top metros at Rs of Rs 362.66 crore each.

Despite being a metro, the bid for Kolkata was among the lowest at Rs 135.99 crore, followed by Kerala at Rs 134.65 crore and Punjab at Rs 121.20 crore.

When contacted, government officials said the auction process may go on for 10-12 days looking at the response from the operators.

Asked whether there was any glitch in conducting the auction, they said the process was extremely smooth.

According to Sanjay Bhandarkar, NM Rothschild (India) head, the bidding process would stop only when the highest bids have been detected for all the circles simultaneously.

The auction for the Broadband Wireless Acces spectrum would be conducted two days after closing the 3G auction.

The government has set an ambitious target of raising up to Rs 35,000 crore from the sale of spectrum for 3G and s (BWA) services.

Telecom Minister A Raja, however, said that the collection from the sale of spectrum may go up to Rs 40,000 crore as the players are too keen to acquire air waves for 3G mobile services.

The winners will be awarded spectrum in September, which means commercial operations of 3G services should be possible only by the end of 2010 or early 2011.

With 3G services, subscribers will be able to download full length movies and music files at much faster pace, watch TV on mobile and make video calls.

Besides Bharti and RCOM, Vodafone Essar, TTSL, Aircel and Idea Cellular and Videocon are in the fray.

Earlier report:

3G auction off to a smooth start

The 3G spectrum auction is off to a smooth start on Thursday with top telecom operators, including Bharti, Vodafone, RCom and Tatas, in the fray to acquire the radio waves that could fetch the government up to Rs 35,000 crore.

When contacted, a senior department of telecom (DoT) official confirmed the smooth beginning of the auction across 22 circles simultaneously.

Asked whether the Government would fetch its target of Rs 35,000 crore from the sale of spectrum, the official said it is difficult to guess any amount at this moment as it would depend on how aggressive the operators are in bidding.

There are nine mobile operators, including the big six, that would bid for the 3-4 slots on offer.

The final bidders, include Bharti Airtel, Reliance Telecom, Idea Cellular, Vodafone Essar, TTSL and Aircel for pan India.

The government is hoping to garner around Rs 30,000- 35,000 crore by selling 3G airwaves and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum through auction that started today and is expected to last up to three weeks. There is, however, no time limit or deadline for the closing of the auction.

The e-auction has started at 9 am and will remain open till 7.30 pm everyday till the process is complete.

The government has set base prices for all the 22 zones at Rs 3,500 crore and Rs 1,750 crore for BWA.

According to Sanjay Bhandarkar, NM Rothschild (India) head, the bidding process would stop only when the highest bids have been detected for all the circles simultaneously.

The auction for the BWA spectrum would be conducted two days after close of the 3G auction

The winners will be awarded spectrum in September, which means commercial operations of 3G services should be possible only by the end of 2010 or early 2011.

With 3G services, subscribers will be able to download hi-speed data and video streaming.

The DoT has said that 3G auction is designed to prevent predatory bids. According to the auction rules, bidders cannot name their price and they can only accept or reject the price posted in each round.

There will be multiple, round-the-clock auction simultaneously for 22 circles.

The bidders will have no control on increasing the base price, which can increase from 10 per cent to 1 per cent after each round.

If there is one bidder more than the number of spectrum slots, the increase would be 5 per cent and if there are two bidders more than the base would be raised by 10 per cent.

However, if the number of bidders is the same as the number of slots, the price would go up by only 1 per cent, as per the auction rules.