India finally began the long-waited 3G spectrum auction on April 9, Reuters reported on April 9. India's DoT (Department of Telecommunications) said on its website that it had completed five rounds of bidding on April 9. Fierce competition among bidders has pushed up the bid price for one slot of bandwidth to offer 3G services across India to 39.14 billion Rupees (US$885.0 million; US$1 = 44.23 Rupees), higher than the starting bid price of 35 billion Rupees (US$793.1 million), the Wall Street Journal reported on April 10. With three available slots, Delhi fetched the bid price of 3.73 billion Rupees (US$84.3 million), the highest price among all service circles, according to the same source.

 

A separate spectrum auction for BWA (Broadband Wireless Access) will take place two days after the completion of the 3G auction, which is expected take around two weeks to complete, according again to Reuters. Winning bidders have to pay for their licenses within 10 days following the auction closure.