NEW DELHI: The bid for 3G spectrum is entering the final stages with the price at the pan-India level touching Rs 89.14 billion.
The bid for Mumbai stands at Rs 13.83 million, ahead of Delhi‘s Rs 13.49 billion stretch at the end of 94 rounds on day 16.
The rest of Maharashtra closed at Rs 8.74 billion, with Tamil Nadu at Rs 8.09 billion. Karnataka closed at Rs 7.49 billion, while Andhra Pradesh had a bid of Rs 7.72 billion, and Gujarat closed at Rs 6.91 billion. Kerala rose marginally to Rs 2.72 billion, while Kolkata clocked Rs 2.64 billion.
The bids for most states are expected to rise very little. These include Delhi, Mumbai, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, West and East Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and the North-East.
While West Uttar Pradesh clocked Rs 3.58 billion, Haryana rose marginally to Rs 2.2 billion.
The bids for some states remained unchanged: the North-East at Rs 309 million, Rajasthan at Rs 2.59 billion, Punjab at Rs 1.49 billion, Bihar at Rs 3.51 billion, East Uttar Pradesh at Rs 2.60 billion, Assam and Orissa at Rs 309 million, Madhya Pradesh at Rs 2.36 billion, West Bengal at Rs 1.24 million, and Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh service areas at Rs 300 million each.
The telecom operators in the race are Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Etisalat DB Telecom, Idea Cellular, Reliance, S Tel, Tata Teleservices, Videocon Telecommunications and Vodafone Essar.
The successful bidders would be allowed to start commercial 3G operations from 1 September.