BWA to take spectrum revenue to Rs 1 lakh cr

The government seems poised to ride India's next-generation airwaves to the magical Rs 1 lakh crore-mark. With broadband wireless access (BWA) auctions yielding Rs 28,566 crore as on Friday and the just-concluded 3G auctions fetching Rs 67,719 crore, combined revenues have already reached Rs 96,285 crore.
It is expected that BWA auctions would end in the next few days, with the level of activity being raised to 90% on Thursday.
On Friday, BWA spectrum price for a single pan-India slot hit Rs 9,522 crore, which is 444% higher than the reserve price of Rs 1,750 crore. A total of 11 bidders are in the fray for 20 MHz of BWA spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band for broadband wireless services. Finally, the government would award two slots per circle to private operators, with one slot already awarded to state-owned BSNL/MTNL, who would later match the highest bid.
BWA spectrum will help operators provide high-speed broadband services and facilitate several e-governance projects relating to health and education in remote areas. The 11 BWA aspirants are Aircel, Augere (Mauritius), Bharti Airtel (BHARTIARTL.BO : 276.3 +2.8), Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Reliance WiMAX, Spice Internet Service, Provider Private Ltd, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks and Vodafone-Essar. The successful bidders would be allocated spectrum in September.