The first two days of the 3G spectrum auctions saw ‘cautious bidding’ by operators. Prices did not go wildly high.

On Saturday the bid price closed at Rs 4,085 crore. A day earlier, the first day of the auctions, the pan-India bid price was Rs 3,980 crore, against the reserve price of Rs 3,500 crore.

Three circles received no bids, They are Orissa, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir.

KPMG’s director of telecom, Romal Shetty, said the bidding would be cautious initially.

“In some circles we see no operator interest because they want to fully roll out their 2G networks in those circles. There is no estimate when the auctions will be over,” Shetty said.

Harit Shah, telecom analyst at Karvy Broking, said, “The auctions will take time as the rounds for all the circles have to be concluded. We notice selective and cautious bidding so far, which clearly states that operators are cautious on the price.”

Ten rounds of auction were completed by Saturday. The auctions will resume on Monday. Nine companies participated in auctions. They are Aircel, Bharti Airtel, Idea, Reliance, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone, S Tel, Videocon and Etisalat DB Telecom. The department of relecom (DoT) on its website said category A circles such as Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka saw aggressive bidding at par with top metros.

There will be multiple, round-the-clock auction simultaneously for the 22 circles. The government has set a target of raising up to Rs 35,000 crore from the auction of spectrum for 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA). DoT has fixed the reserve price for BWA spectrum at Rs 1,750 crore. There are three slots for BWA. The auction for BWA spectrum will take place over two days after the 3G auctions are concluded.