Spectrum auction: Bids cross ₹50,000-cr mark

The fight for spectrum continued for the third day with the total bid amount crossing ₹50,000-crore mark.

Bids for 900 MHz spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai moved up to ₹574 crore and ₹563 crore, respectively for one MHz of spectrum. This is now 60 per cent and 71.7 per cent higher than the respective price at the start of the auction.

So far 21 rounds of bidding have been completed in three days. Demand for 1800 MHz is slowly picking up.

All spectrum put on the block in 9 out of 22 circles have been sold.

Price for spectrum in Bihar and Assam has crossed the bid amount paid by operators for 3G spectrum in 2010.

Apart from these two circles, there are more bidders than that spectrum available in West Bengal. There is excess demand for 900 MHz in Delhi circle. The auction will not close until the number of bidders equals to number of spectrum slots in each of the 22 circles.

While the aggressive bidding is good news for the Government as it gets more revenue. It also means that operators will drive up mobile tariffs to balance the impact on their bottom line. It took the operators three years to turn around after they coughed up nearly ₹70,000 crore in the 3G auctions in 2010.