The government received Rs 67,719 crore from nine telecom players, including BSNL and MTNL, on Monday as 3G spectrum licence fees. The licences were auctioned recently. The spectrum bonanza continued as on Monday, the bid for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum touched Rs 21,664 crore. Since the BWA auction is still on, the Centre expects the total amount is to climb further. The government had earlier projected that it would mop up Rs 35,000 crore from the sale of 3G and BWA spectrum put together. So far, the amount has already gone up to Rs 89,383 crore. This shows that the government’s fiscal deficit is likely to come down to 4.5% from the estimated figure of 5.5%. The Centre is assured to get at least Rs 54,383 crore more than what it had estimated. On Monday, Bharti Airtel paid the highest amount — Rs 12,295.46 crore for 3G spectrum in 13 circles, followed by Vodafone (Rs 11,617.86 crore). State-owned BSNL and MTNL also paid up Rs 10,186.56 crore and Rs 6,564 crore respectively for the radio waves. Earlier, it was being speculated that the telecom PSUs may not be able to sell out the amount, considering the fact that they are in poor financial condition. The Anil Ambani-owned RCom also deposited Rs 8,585.04 crore with the government. The company has bagged spectrum in 13 circles, including the prized Delhi and Mumbai. All the successful bidders will be allotted spectrum in September this year after it gets vacated by the defence. 3G services will provide subscribers high-speed data on their mobile phones and are expected to be launched by January-March. Among other private operators, Idea Cellular, Tatas, Aircel and STel have also paid their respective bid amounts to the Department of Telecom (DoT). At the same time, competition in BWA is hotting up with pan-India bid for single licence touching Rs 7,221 crore. There are three pan-India slots for BWA spectrum. Going by the demand, which is more than availability in crucial circles, including metros, the bid is likely to increase further. Among the individual circles, bid for Delhi and Mumbai is equal at Rs 1,012.96 crore, followed by Tamil Nadu at Rs 943.17 crore. There was negative demand in 12 circles, excess demand in four, while six circles had equal demand and supply. The government is auctioning two slots of 20 MHz of pan-India BWA spectrum. BSNL and MTNL, which have already been given the BWA spectrum ahead of private players, will have to pay the equivalent of the winning bid in each service area. As many as 11 companies are bidding for BWA spectrum. Apart from Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communication, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Vodafone and Tata Communications Internet Services, the BWA aspirants has four new players – Augere, Tikona Wireless, Infotel Broadband Services and Qualcomm, and Spice Internet and Infotel.
BWA spectrum allows companies to offer highspeed Internet access as well as Internet telephony and TV services. It can also be used for voice and highspeed data services.
HOW THEY TIED UP FUNDS
Bharti Airtel : Raised Rs 8,800 cr six-year syndicated loan, reportedly from HDFC, HDFC Bank, SBI & IDFC Securities
Tata Tele : Raised over Rs 4,500 cr through a combination of bonds and loans; it also raised another Rs 1,000 cr through commercial paper with a tenure of 1 year from various institutions Vodafone Essar : Raised Rs 10,000 cr loan from SBI. It was reportedly securing additional funding by issuing commercial papers as also another loan from a consortium of banks
RCom : Raised Rs 4,000 cr from commercial papers. While LIC picked up Rs 2,000 cr, the rest has been subscribed to by MFs & banks
Aircel : Raised about Rs 3,000 cr from commercial papers SBI had set aside Rs 20,000 cr for financing some of the telecom companies who had won the bids for 3G spectrum Fund raising details of other companies not available
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