Domestic cellular operators bid over $15 billion in a windfall to the Indian goverment’s auction of 3G spectrum. Analysts had only expected about $7 billion but the intense competition among Reliance Telecom, Bharti Airtel, and Aircell caused the license price to go up in a manner reminiscent of the European and American 3G auction in years past. The two carriers owned by the Indian government Two government-owned carriers, BSNL and MTNL, which launched 3G services last year, are required to pay the same amount as the highest private bid in the regions where they were awarded licenses.
Big players such as Alcatel Lucent, Ericsson and Nokia should see “moderate” benefits from the Indian 3G roll out, programmable logic suppliers like Altera and Xilinx should also be positioned well to benefit from incremental regional equipment spending, according to Nishna Biyani, research analyst at Prabhudas Lilladher quoted in the EE Times.
Last updated: December 26th, 2025
