The Department of Telecommunications is expecting revenues in the range of Rs 300-400 billion (Rs 30,000 crore-Rs 40,000 crore) from the auction of broadband wireless access spectrum, against its initial target of Rs 150 billion (Rs 15,000 crore).
If it happens, the government's revenues from the auction of third-generation and BWA spectrum collectively would be over Rs 1 trillion. The 3G auction, which was concluded recently, yielded Rs 677 billion (Rs 67,700 crore) for the government.
In the five days of BWA auction so far, the government revenues have already exceeded Rs 180 billion (Rs 18,000 crore).
"Seeing the response and the number of bidders in the BWA auction, which started on May 24, we are expecting revenues between Rs 300 billion (Rs 30,000 crore) and Rs 400 billion (Rs 40,000 crore). There's huge demand for BWA spectrum, as operators will be able to leapfrog to the next-generation TD LTE (Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex) technology after acquiring this frequency," a senior DoT official told Business Standard.
The auction for BWA spectrum had sprang a surprise on the first day itself with bids going up by as much as 34 per cent, as compared to a 12 per cent increase in the case of auction for 3G
airwaves on the starting day.
With BWA spectrum, the successful bidders would be able to launch either Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access services or TD-LTE as the spectrum is technology neutral, the official said. TD-LTE, is expected to be commercially viable in 2-3 years.
WiMAX services in laptops and desktops will allow consumers to access the Internet at very high speed. TD-LTE would have a better speed than WiMAX, according to some industry experts but this technology is yet to launched commercially.
US-based chipmaker Qualcomm is promoting TD LTE, to which the WiMAX forum of India has raised objections saying chipsets for this technology are not available.
Communications and IT Minister A Raja had earlier said DoT was expecting revenues of Rs 15,000 crore from the BWA auction. The government had budgeted Rs 35,000 crore from both the 3G and BWA auction.
As many as 11 companies are participating in the BWA auction.