The Communications Ministry of India said 33 consortia, involving more than 60 companies, placed bids for wireless licenses in 20 regions of the heavily populated nation.
The government said it would study the proposals until the middle of July before awarding the 10-year licenses, two in each region for a total of 40 licenses.
All operators must use Global System for Mobile communications technology. The licensing is part of India’s efforts to privatize the nation’s basic telephone and cellular telecommunications operations. Long-distance service will not be made private.
With a population of more than 900 million people, a large middle class and inadequate telecommunications service-where one telephone must support an average of 112 people,-India is seen by many telecommunications players as a potential industry hotbed.
One of the biggest U.S. bidders was Nynex Corp., which collaborated with Reliance Industries Ltd. of India to bid on 18 regions. The Indian government has limited consortium ownership by non-Indian players to 49 percent.
AT&T Corp. allied with Aditya V. Birla Group to bid for licenses in Gujarat, Karnataka and Maharashtra. AT&T holds 49 percent of Birla Communications Ltd.
“We have chosen to bid for the three most attractive circles for providing cellular service, and will bring state-of-the-art technology to subscribers,” said Mark Hamilton, executive vice president of AT&T Wireless Services. “We are ready, willing and able to rapidly deploy high capability cellular networks for rural and urban areas in each circle in which we win,” he said.
There were no offers for the northwestern state of Jammu-Kashmir, an area torn by civil strife, nor was there interest in the remote islands of Andaman and Nicobar, the government said.
One bid was rejected because it did not meet tender requirements.
An Indian economic analyst expressed doubt that things will go smoothly, noting the hoopla that followed the granting of eight initial cellular licenses in 1992. A lawsuit challenging the selections froze the entire process and the matter wasn’t settled until it reached India’s Supreme Court. The eight operators just recently received the green light to build out their systems.
