NEWS /
|
India kicked off an eagerly awaited multi-billion dollar spectrum auction on Friday that would help telecom firms in the world's fastest-growing wireless market offer premium third-generation (3G) services. Strong competition among bidders, which include Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and the Indian unit of Vodafone, should push up winning bids to as much as thrice the base price. A spokesman for India's Department of Telecommunications told Reuters the 3G auction had begun as per schedule. Officials have said it would take at least a week or possibly more for the auctions to be completed. The country's top mobile operators -- most of them backed by international phone firms -- are vying for a total 71 3G slots on offer in India's 22 telecoms zones in the auction, which is to be followed by a separate auction of broadband spectrum and would be one of the world's biggest such auctions in recent years. The Indian government has pencilled in revenues of nearly $8 billion from the auctions, but analysts expect the auctions to fetch more than the government's target, helping it plug its fiscal deficit, which was at a 16-year high last year. Bharti, India's biggest mobile operator, and rivals Reliance Communications, Vodafone Essar and Tata Teleservices are seen winning the most number of slots in the 3G auction, for which the base price has been set at 35 billion rupees ($790 million) for a national cover. But limited number of slots -- three each in 17 of the 22 zones and four in the remainder -- and deep-pocketed firms in the fray could see winning bids for national cover go above $1 billion or even touch $2 billion, analysts say. Winning 3G spectrum will boost the valuations of companies as they get to offer premium services such as high-speed Internet and video calling on mobile phones. But aggressive bidding could stretch the finances of companies and weigh on their earnings. CRISIL, a unit of rating agency Standard & Poor's, said on Friday large debt funding for the 3G spectrum may put pressure on the financial risk profiles of telecoms firms over the near to medium term, but was unlikely to impact their credit profiles. "Still companies should pay less than what others had to pay in auctions abroad," said Ambareesh Baliga, a vice president at local brokerage Karvy Stock Broking, who sees the auctions as positive for telecoms firms. In 2000, the UK raised more than $35 billion from a spectrum auction, while Germany collected about $67 billion from its UMTS licence auctions. In 2008, the United States raised $18 billion from spectrum auction. Germany's latest mobile phone spectrum auction starts Monday, which analysts expect to raise from 3 billion to 7 billion euros. ($7 billion-$9 billion). Vodafone is also one of the bidders in the German auction. Baliga said he expected Bharti, which controls more than 22 percent of the Indian cellphone market with 125 million mobile users, to win maximum number of slots in the 3G auction. |
Tags: 3G
Datawind can bid for Aakash 2, affirms Sibal
Aakash 2 with capacitive touchscreen for $50
Komparify.com helps you choose the best mobile data plan
Why CDMA phones aren't dominating in India?
Telcos should cut down 3G prices, says Nokia
Better, faster Aakash-II to come in April: Government
Leaked Images, Availability, Pricing,
Specs, Pre-order
Karbonn officially launches the A9 Android smartphone
14 May, 2012, 06:14 PM IST
Supreme Court website hacked in response to TPB, Vimeo block
17 May, 2012, 04:46 PM IST
Sony Xperia P up for pre-order on Infibeam, launching on 25 May
19 May, 2012, 04:32 PM IST
Samsung Galaxy S III pops up on eBay India for Rs. 44,770
22 May, 2012, 11:19 AM IST
16 May, 2012, 11:57 AM IST
The latest "should they-shouldn't they" event with Facebook is the lift of the minimu...
Portable Wi-Fi Drives for your smartphone
Fed up of the limited storage on your mobile device? Here are some devices
Top 5 potential Gmail alternatives
Google’s Gmail service is arguably the most advanced and feature-packed...
Five ways to beat the petrol hike
Petrol prices went up by a considerable amount post Wednesday, and this...
By Karan Shah

SpaceX's Dragon capsule locks up to the ISS
26 May, 2012, 04:18 PM IST
In a moment that is nothing short of being historic, SpaceX’s Dragon capsule has, according to NASA reports ...
Microsoft VP talks about Ballmer's new tech - an 80-inch touchscreen
Cisco won't invest in their Android tablet for businesses
Yahoo! shuts down Livestand 6 months after launch
Giant radio telescope gets split location

Sony to roll-out ICS update next week,...
BlackBerry Curve 9320 announced in India...
Microsoft VP talks about Ballmer's...
Cisco won't invest in their Android...

















Mixx
Facebook
Twitter
Digg
delicious
reddit
MySpace
StumbleUpon
LinkedIn










































































_011517074205_160x90.jpg)















