2G spectrum: Videocon gets six circles for Rs 2,222 cr

New Delhi: Videcon Telecom has bagged 2G spectrum in six circles and would be shelling out Rs 2,222 crore as total spectrum cost.

Confirming this to Firstpost, CEO Arvind Bali said the circles his company has bagged are Uttar Pradesh East, Uttar Pradesh West, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat and Haryana. The company had lost 21 licenses after the Supreme Court cancelled 122 licenses awarded by former telecom minister A Raja in February this year. After today, it can operate in seven circles - Punjab is already operational.

Bali said with today’s spectrum in Videocon’s kitty, the company will cover 50 percent of the country’s population as far as mobile services are concerned.

Today was the second day of the spectrum auctions, which had begun on Monday.

Since morning, only one circle-Bihar-kept up bidders’ interest since industry sources said Telewings and Videocon were both after this circle. The auctions finally got over a little after 6 pm today.

It would be interesting to see what Videocon does now since there has been a lot of speculation about the company’s links with Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries and the latter’s interest in a possible acquisition of Videocon’s voice business to further his own 4G ambitions.

Videocon already managed to surprise many with abrupt withdrawal of applications for CDMA spectrum auctions earlier. Industry experts had said earlier that Videocon would put in only as many bids in GSM auctions where they get back the Rs 1658 crore they earlier paid as license fee and which the government has said will be adjusted against the amounts submitted for the upcoming auctions.

With the Rs 2,222 crore investment this evening, this surmise does not appear to be far wrong.