Who won what in India's BWA auction
12-06-2010
Reliance Industries, Qualcomm triumphant. Tata Comm, RCom surprise losers
Infotel Broadband Services unexpectedly emerged as the only firm to win nationwide licences to offer broadband in India. It won spectrum in all 22 circles and will pay Rs 128.48 billion ($2.75 billion).
Soon after the announcement of the BWA auction winners, Reliance Industries (RIL) announced that it will buy Infotel Broadband Services for $1 billion, marking the re-entry of India's largest listed firm into the booming telecom market.
Reliance will invest about Rs 4,800 crore (Rs.48 billion) by subscribing to fresh equity capital at par to be issued by Infotel Broadband. It will own 95 per cent of Infotel, which will function as a subsidiary of RIL.
RIL's Chairman and CEO, industrialist Mukesh Ambani, was freed to enter the telecoms sector after ending a pact last month with his long-estranged brother Anil Ambani that prevented them from competing on each other's turf.
When the brothers split up the family empire in 2005, Anil Ambani gained control of Reliance Communications, and his brother was widely seen to covet a return to the industry.
Infotel is owned by the son of Mahendra Nahata, managing director of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL) and is unconnected with HFCL, Nahata told Reuters.
US chipmaker Qualcomm won one 20 MHZ slot each in Delhi, Mumbai, Harayana and Kerala. Qualcomm had said its interest in the auction was aimed at faster deployment of LTE in India, as it bets on "inter-operability" between 3G and wireless broadband. The company's final bid was Rs 4912.54 cr or approximately $1.045 bn.
According to Dr Paul E Jacobs, chairman and CEO, Qualcomm, "Along with our ecosystem partners, we are now poised to accelerate the mobile broadband revolution with 3G HSPA, EV-DO and LTE to the benefit of all Indians" Added Kanwalinder Singh, president of Qualcomm India and South Asia, and SVP, Qualcomm, "Our bidding objective was to secure an enabling role in the continued success of Indian operators with 3G and beyond, and we are extremely gratified we met that objective"
Qualcomm will soon announce its Indian partners in compliance with the applicable Indian FDI regulations. The company's goal is to attract one or more experienced 3G HSPA and/or EVDO operator partners into the venture for construction of an LTE network in compliance with the Government's rollout requirement for the BWA spectrum, and then to exit the venture.
India's biggest mobile operator Bharti Airtel won wireless broadband spectrum in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kolkata and Punjab. Aircel continued to surprise, winning spectrum in 8 circles including the home circle of its original founder, Tamil Nadu.
RComm and Tata Comm, two major brands who were successful in the 3G auctions and had great hopes to win the BWA auctions, failed to win in BWA. According to sources, Rcomm, Tata, Vodafone and Idea backed out of the auctions when bidding became too aggressive. This would be the second time Tata Comm has backed out of an auction, exiting the 3G auction as well when bidding went beyond an affordable level.
According to an Rcomm spokesperson, "We exited the BWA auctions a week ago, when auction prices significantly exceeded our business case estimates. However, Rcomm will focus on broadband wireless through 3G-ready pan India CDMA and 13-circle 3G coverage. RComm also prefers LTE standard offering a single evolution path for both, CDMA & GSM networks, and may continue to evaluate WiMAX opportunistically on case by case basis in India and other geographies"
Rcomm said they believe that the WiMax ecosystem has weakened after WiMAX operators like Clearwire and Yota moved to LTE.
With Tata Communications claims of having 220,00 broadband subscribers, and 35,000 WiMax subscribers, with 90% coverage in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chandigarh, it is quite surprising that it opted out of the auctions, and a company source claims that there is tremendous disappointment felt by the group towards the failure to win in the auctions.
India will earn Rs 385.4 billion from selling three all-India licences to six private sector operators who participated in the auction, including Aircel, plus two government carriers.
Together, revenue from the two auctions will touch Rs 1.06 trillion ($22.7 billion), about three times New Dehli's initial estimates.
Operator Circles Total BWA bid
in Rs crores
Infotel Pan-India (22) 12847.77
Qualcomm Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, Haryana (4) 4912.54
Bharti Maharashtra, Karnataka,
Kolkata, Punjab (4) 3314.36
Tikona Gujarat, UP (E), UP(W),
Rajasthan, HP (5) 1058.20
Aircel AP, TN, W.Bangal, Bihar, Orissa
Assam, NE, J&K (8) 3438.1
Augere MP (1) 124.66
BSNL Pan India except Mumbai, Delhi 8313.8
MTNL Mumbai, Delhi 4533.97
TOTAL 38543.31
Infotel Broadband Services unexpectedly emerged as the only firm to win nationwide licences to offer broadband in India. It won spectrum in all 22 circles and will pay Rs 128.48 billion ($2.75 billion).
Soon after the announcement of the BWA auction winners, Reliance Industries (RIL) announced that it will buy Infotel Broadband Services for $1 billion, marking the re-entry of India's largest listed firm into the booming telecom market.
Reliance will invest about Rs 4,800 crore (Rs.48 billion) by subscribing to fresh equity capital at par to be issued by Infotel Broadband. It will own 95 per cent of Infotel, which will function as a subsidiary of RIL.
RIL's Chairman and CEO, industrialist Mukesh Ambani, was freed to enter the telecoms sector after ending a pact last month with his long-estranged brother Anil Ambani that prevented them from competing on each other's turf.
When the brothers split up the family empire in 2005, Anil Ambani gained control of Reliance Communications, and his brother was widely seen to covet a return to the industry.
Infotel is owned by the son of Mahendra Nahata, managing director of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd (HFCL) and is unconnected with HFCL, Nahata told Reuters.
US chipmaker Qualcomm won one 20 MHZ slot each in Delhi, Mumbai, Harayana and Kerala. Qualcomm had said its interest in the auction was aimed at faster deployment of LTE in India, as it bets on "inter-operability" between 3G and wireless broadband. The company's final bid was Rs 4912.54 cr or approximately $1.045 bn.
According to Dr Paul E Jacobs, chairman and CEO, Qualcomm, "Along with our ecosystem partners, we are now poised to accelerate the mobile broadband revolution with 3G HSPA, EV-DO and LTE to the benefit of all Indians" Added Kanwalinder Singh, president of Qualcomm India and South Asia, and SVP, Qualcomm, "Our bidding objective was to secure an enabling role in the continued success of Indian operators with 3G and beyond, and we are extremely gratified we met that objective"
Qualcomm will soon announce its Indian partners in compliance with the applicable Indian FDI regulations. The company's goal is to attract one or more experienced 3G HSPA and/or EVDO operator partners into the venture for construction of an LTE network in compliance with the Government's rollout requirement for the BWA spectrum, and then to exit the venture.
India's biggest mobile operator Bharti Airtel won wireless broadband spectrum in Maharashtra, Karnataka, Kolkata and Punjab. Aircel continued to surprise, winning spectrum in 8 circles including the home circle of its original founder, Tamil Nadu.
RComm and Tata Comm, two major brands who were successful in the 3G auctions and had great hopes to win the BWA auctions, failed to win in BWA. According to sources, Rcomm, Tata, Vodafone and Idea backed out of the auctions when bidding became too aggressive. This would be the second time Tata Comm has backed out of an auction, exiting the 3G auction as well when bidding went beyond an affordable level.
According to an Rcomm spokesperson, "We exited the BWA auctions a week ago, when auction prices significantly exceeded our business case estimates. However, Rcomm will focus on broadband wireless through 3G-ready pan India CDMA and 13-circle 3G coverage. RComm also prefers LTE standard offering a single evolution path for both, CDMA & GSM networks, and may continue to evaluate WiMAX opportunistically on case by case basis in India and other geographies"
Rcomm said they believe that the WiMax ecosystem has weakened after WiMAX operators like Clearwire and Yota moved to LTE.
With Tata Communications claims of having 220,00 broadband subscribers, and 35,000 WiMax subscribers, with 90% coverage in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chandigarh, it is quite surprising that it opted out of the auctions, and a company source claims that there is tremendous disappointment felt by the group towards the failure to win in the auctions.
India will earn Rs 385.4 billion from selling three all-India licences to six private sector operators who participated in the auction, including Aircel, plus two government carriers.
Together, revenue from the two auctions will touch Rs 1.06 trillion ($22.7 billion), about three times New Dehli's initial estimates.
Operator Circles Total BWA bid
in Rs crores
Infotel Pan-India (22) 12847.77
Qualcomm Delhi, Mumbai, Kerala, Haryana (4) 4912.54
Bharti Maharashtra, Karnataka,
Kolkata, Punjab (4) 3314.36
Tikona Gujarat, UP (E), UP(W),
Rajasthan, HP (5) 1058.20
Aircel AP, TN, W.Bangal, Bihar, Orissa
Assam, NE, J&K (8) 3438.1
Augere MP (1) 124.66
BSNL Pan India except Mumbai, Delhi 8313.8
MTNL Mumbai, Delhi 4533.97
TOTAL 38543.31
