Mumbai: Idea Cellular Ltd, India's third-biggest mobile operator by market share, spent 303.06 billion rupees ($4.84 billion) to buy mobile airwaves in the country's spectrum auctions, telecoms minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Thursday.
That was the single biggest amount spent. Together with market leaders Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Group Plc's India unit, the top three players paid 855.75 billion rupees, or about 78 percent of the total airwaves sold, according to figures provided by the minister.
According to market experts, existing telecom players like Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications have managed to get their share of spectrum as the licence for the spectrum that these companies were holding were set to expire.
Reacting to the development, shares of Idea Cellular ended up 4.04 per cent at Rs 180.40 on the BSE. Bharti Airtel also settled in the green territory with gains of 0.98 per cent at Rs 398.70. The spike in these stocks assumes significance as the BSE Sensex ended down 654.25 points, or 2.33 per cent. Shares of Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices, however, settled in the negative zone with losses of 1.23 per cent and 0.26 per cent respectively
India raised a record $17.6 billion from the sale of mobile phone airwaves after 19 days of fierce bidding that ended Wednesday.
