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New Delhi, April 21: The Orissa, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir telecom circles, which are yet to receive bids from operators betting to get third-generation spectrum, could be crucial for the auction to be successful.
Auction rules say bidding will continue till all 22 telecom circles have buyers equal to the number of slots available for sale.
However, the Orissa, Assam and Jammu and Kashmir circles have not received any bids, with the auction for 3G spectrum, or radiowaves, well into its second week. Their base prices have also remained unchanged at Rs 30.30 crore.
Three slots of 5 megahertz (MHz) each are available in Orissa and Assam, while four operators can be accommodated in Jammu and Kashmir.
“Bidders will buy the three circles in the last phase of auction, but the sale price may not be higher than the base price,” said an executive of a telecom firm that had bid for some circles.
Of the nine bidders for 3G spectrum, six players (Bharti Airtel, Reliance Telecom, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Aircel and Vodafone Essar) have applied for radiowaves across all 22 telecom circles. Videocon Telecom, S Tel and Etisalat DB Telecom India have bid for select areas.
According to data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India, Orissa saw a 6 per cent rise in subscriber additions in March 2010. Operators in Assam added 3.6 per cent subscribers, while Jammu and Kashmir had only 0.39 per cent new customers in March.
At present, there are eight players in Orissa, six in Assam and five in Jammu and Kashmir.
The government had recently imposed a ban on prepaid mobile phones in Jammu and Kashmir. While the ban was subsequently lifted, there are stringent conditions on operators for the verification of customers.
Analysts said this could be one of the reasons for the lack of interest in the circle. “Orissa and Assam are also not huge revenue earners for operators and so not important for investment,” they said.
Department of telecom officials said it could take another 15-20 days before a market price was discovered for the scarce radiowaves.
The auction is expected to easily fetch more than Rs 40,000 crore for the government.
The battle for radiowaves is intense in the fast-growing Indian telecom market. Private operators are restricted in their capacity to deliver services because of the shortage of spectrum.