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The 9 Telecom Companies who bid for 3G Auctions in India

on March 30, 2010 – 5:28 pm28 Comments

The DoT or Department of Telecom has announced the pre-qualified bidders for the 3G auctions which are set to take place in India next month.  9 Companies had submitted their bid for the 3G Spectrum and all the 9 telecom companies have qualified to take part in the 3G auctions . Let’s take a look at them


Aircel Limited

Aircel was initially operating in the South region and expanded last year to get a pan india presence. Aircel has MS Dhoni as a brand ambassador.

Market Share :  6.18%

Bharti Airtel Limited

Airtel is the largest operator in India with a over 100 million customers. It has a country wide network which is 3G ready.

Market Share :  22.11 %

Etisalat DB Telecom Private Limited

Even before starting operations the company has manged to rope in Aamir Khan as Brand Ambassador

Idea Cellular Limited

IDEA has a lion’s share of the market in Northern India and expanded to other circles last year. Abhishek  Bachchan  is the brand ambassador for Idea

Market Share :  11.02%

Reliance Telecom Limited

The company has one of the largest CDMA networks in India and started offering GSM services since last . It reached 100 million customers recently.

Market Share : 17.63%

S Tel Private Limited

Relatively small player targeting certain markets such as Jammu & Kashmir, UP , Bihar and Orissa.

Market Share : 0.13%

Tata Teleservices Limited

Tata started mobile services under the Tata Indicom banner which is powered by CDMA .  It then started offering GSM services under the Virgin Mobile  brand and Tata Docomo brand

Market Share : 11.2%

Videocon Telecommunications Limited

Videocon has just launched GSM services in Chennai and Coimbatore had aims to offer services throughout the country

Vodafone Essar Limited

Originally started operations in the country in the name of Hutch and was taken over by Vodafone and Essar group to form the Vodafone Essar Group. Vodafone was in the news recently for the ZooZoo ads.

Market Share :17.25%

As you can see from the above figures the largest private players are Airtel , Vodafone , Reliance and Tata. The number of slots up for auction are 4 in some circles and only 3 in many circles . Some slots are reserved for BSNL and MTNL in all circles and are not part of the auction.  The auctions are for the 2100 MHz band. The mock auctions are set to take place on April 5-6th 2010 and the real auctions will take place on April 9th. 3G Services can go operational from Sep 1 2010 for the winning bidders

Whom do you want to win the auctions and offer 3G services ? If you were to pick one provider from the above who will it be ?

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Varun Krish is a Mobile Technology Enthusiast and has been blogging about mobile phones since 2005. His current phones include the Nokia Lumia 800 and Apple iPhone 4S. You can follow him on Twitter @varunkrish and on Google+ You can also mail Varun Krish

  • chughgopal

    sorry to interrupt varun,
    just corrcting u,
    voafone was hutch.
    bt before it was ‘orange’.

    n hey btw,
    if vodafone wins,
    then 3G will start only in vodafone??
    or even loop gets a share??

    as far as i know bpl was overtaken by vodafone.
    dunno its history after that.

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/tarun06071987 Tarun

    Definitely Airtel…

    I am using Airtel services since 2003 (others also). And believe me none can beat the service provided by Airtel. Be it Network, VAS, Customer Service, Instant Messaging and lots of other goodies.

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/tarun06071987 Tarun

    Haven’t you mentioned The Russian giant MTS.

  • Satya

    My vote goes to Airtel :)

  • Roshan

    Uninor is nowhere in the list..

  • http://lovemynokia.com/ Siraj Hassan Mohideen

    I hope airtel can make it :D Plz do Airtel we gonna kick that BSNL lol :D

  • Fabian

    I just HOpE airtel, vodafone, reliance and tata get it… As the rest kinda suck at market share and enterprising and stuff.

  • http://www.fonearena.com Varun Krish

    They did not apply for the 3G spectrum hence you cant find them

  • http://www.fonearena.com Varun Krish

    They are not bidding either

  • http://www.fonearena.com Varun Krish

    Hi gopal,

    Vodafone was Hutch is most circles and was Orange in some circles if I’m right. Just missed that point .

    Regarding the loop issue , this auction is on circle basis and if Vodafone wins in that Loop circle then only it can offer 3G services.

  • chughgopal

    ma vote goes for airtel and loop.
    if both gets is.
    ‘chandi hi chandi’.
    n yup,
    nobody wud like to lose bid of mumbai circle.
    so competition’s gonna b tuf evn by d new arrivals.

  • http://www.vkvraju.com @vkvraju

    I would like tata docomo to win. they are creative in their plans!!

  • Indianconsumer

    Guys only 2 companies can provide 3G services per cicrle. so hoping that Airtel and TATA get those as these 2 are a force to recon in the industry and are very bulish about the indian market. but you may never know what happens.Also initially the charges for 3G services are gonna be high.

    Any which way guys be ready with 3G hadsets :)

  • Amit Kataria

    It Should be AIRTEL.. Being the largest operator in India they will be the best to be provided this license. It should definitely not be RELIANCE as their focus is always on getting money rather than the service.

  • hiren

    I think tata docomo who is new baby who make revolution in price,pulse rate, sms charges and great GPRS plans. still it have some network problem but it is improving very faster than other service provider (from my personal experience from other service provider in their earlier stages)you just need to inform them location where you get network issue.

  • http://www.onlinetipsblog.com Yogesh

    Voted for Airtel

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/tarun06071987 Tarun

    ok, bro

  • http://www.google.com/profiles/tarun06071987 Tarun

    You are absolutely correct Amit. My father is using the reliance number and he is not at all satisfied with the services (even annoying calls and sms inspite of DND). He is just using for the sake of the old number. ASA the Wireless Number portability is activated on Reliance and Airtel, I will get the connection switched to the Airtel with the same number.

  • badperson

    and what about QUALCOMM???
    There was a rumor that even it was going to bid for a piece of the 3g spectrum cake…

  • http://www.fonearena.com Varun Krish

    They are bidding for BWA spectrum or Broadband Wireless Access . It’s mainly for WiMax and Wireless services which does not fall under mobile telephony

  • K.Shiva Kumar

    Airtel & Ericsson will rock india………….

  • Rahul

    Airtel will win

  • shubhnayak

    vodafone or airtel

  • Anoop P G

    I hope Idea will win.

  • Arun Singh

    TCL WILL WIN AND HE WILL BE LARGEST BROADBAND COMPANY IN WORLD

  • Nagaraj

    Aircel WIll win

  • dolly chourasiya

    i got max information of this page

  • hari mohan chaurasia

    i m also got max information of this page.