India raises $14.6bn in 3G auction

The Great Indian tamasha of allocating 3G spectrum to private cellular operators finally ended its first process with Department of Telecom raising about $14.6bn. Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular have emerged as provisional winners in the auction.
Tata Teleservices, Aircel and S Tel are the other provisional winners in the auction, which began April 9. The Department of Telecommunications said the results are subject to the approval of the government and thus will result in further consumption of time. The proceeds from the auction will include payments by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, who were given bandwidth before auctions to have a head start, being state run companies are now destined to meet the winning bids. The Indian government had put up three bandwidth slots for sale to offer 3G services in 17 telecom service areas, and four slots in remaining five areas. The successful bidders will be allowed to offer 3G services on a commercial basis effective September of this year, if nothing goes in trouble again.