It's the biggest government auction ever and could rake in a whopping Rs 50,000 crores. The 3G (third generation radio frequency ) auction begins Friday and set to create mobile history in India. 3G allows faster connectivity and will offer host of value added services like internet TV, video-on-demand, audio-video calls and high-speed data exchange. Top telecom companies like Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices will bid for airwaves in all 22 service areas. The auction will start by 9 am and go on still 7.30 in the evening. The government has set 3,500 crore rupees as the base price for one 3G slot and is likely to get 50,000 crore rupees. This will be an ascending e-auction based on clock round where the bid levels have been pre-determined by the government. Clearly there is intense competition with nine players in the fray for 3-4 slots across the country. Six of them are established leading players including the likes of Bharti and Vodafone. Bids could range upto billion per 3G spectrum slo t, essentially driven by the desire of most of the bidders, especially the existing operators for taking additional spectrum and providing for future growth and offering new services. There are some other factors also in this play, especially given the fact that there are 2-3 other entrants including EthSlat which is yet to launch operations. Videocon which has bid for much smaller category, not for nationwide, and Estel also. These are the companies which might want to try their luck in the few circles. They will possibly rope in a partner at a subsequent stage, if they succeed. The auction seems to take several days to finish until the last circle is sold.for further: ibnlive.in.com/news/3g-on-your-phone-auction-begins-today/112952-11.html
