BWA auction to start on Monday

Bharti Airtel, Reliance WiMax, Idea Cellular, Aircel, Augere Mauritius Limited, Infotel Broadband Services, Qualcomm, Spice Internet Service Provider, Tata Communications Internet Services, Tikona Digital Networks and Vodafone Essar will participate in the BWA auction.

The government has set Rs 1,750 crore as the base price for a BWA slot. Global investment bank Rothschild and telecom auction services provider dot.econ are advising the government on the auction. The government expects to earn Rs 20,000 crore in the auction.

In a related development, the government on Friday also approved the auction to award spectrum for third generation (3G) telecom services, fetching Rs 67,718.95 crore ($15 billion) to the state exchequer.