India’s Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum auctions closed after 16 days and 117 rounds of bidding, making about 257 billion INR ($5.5 billion) for the government.
Among the winners we find:
- Infotel – which paid 128.48 billion INR for licenses in all 22 of India’s service areas
- Aircel – which paid 34.38 INR billion for 8 regional licenses
- Qualcomm – which secured spectrum in four service areas, including the two most expensive zones – Delhi and Mumbai
- Bharti – which also acquired BWA spectrum in four zones
In total, 11 companies competed for two bandwidth slots in each of the 22 service areas. The bandwidth is suitable for technologies such as WiMAX, but we know Qualcomm intends to use the spectrum to deploy TF-LTE technology and is in the midst of finding a local partner to help build-out the new network.
In related news, India’s largest-listed conglomerate Reliance Industries is in talks to buy Infotel Broadband Services in a move that would see them entering the telco market, big time.
You can get the official India’s DoT auction report from here. (PDF file)
[Via: MobileBusinessBriefing]