RIM Likely to Profit from $11bn 3G License Auction in India

Posted
by
Kyle McInnes
on May 31, 2010, at 10:40 AM
in News
. Tags: 3g, aircel, bharti-airtel, india, reliance.
Comments: 3 responses
3 Comments

The 3G auction in India raised an astounding $11 billion by selling licenses to major carriers such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Aircel. Considering the low price of communications in India, $11 billion is even more incredible.

Now that the 3G licenses are in place, these carriers are going to need to sell a lot of 3G enabled devices to start collecting some revenue. BlackBerry have a solid footing in India, and we can expect the company to profit significantly after this auction. Just recently, the Bold 9700 was launched in India and users can also use the Storm2 9550 on the country’s 3G networks. I’m sure we’ll see some of the next generation devices hit India as well to cater to the high-end smartphone buyers.

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  • http://appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/vendor/1111 Eric at Ebscer

    India will probably be more important than China for this market…

  • http://seriousmobile.wordpress.com Donny

    To the Editor, Kyle.

    Don't you mean the Storm 2 9500 (same that Vodafone has) since its HSDPA uses 2100Mhz bands – the North American “3G” that US has duped many to have faith in, until recently, is CDMA 1XEV-DO which is NOT compatible with India.

    3G 2100 BSNL / MTNL
    http://www.worldtimezone.com/gsm.html

    From your sourced link:
    “Seven companies submitted winning bids for a total of 71 licenses, pledging to pay 509 billion rupees ($10.9 billion). The auction results will also determine the price two state-owned phone companies, MTNL and BSNL, will pay for spectrum they have already been allotted.

    …
    Bharti AirTel, which is India’s biggest cellphone company and recently signed a deal to buy a large African mobile operation, spent the most for the spectrum, bidding $2.6 billion for airwaves in 13 regions. Another big Indian company, Reliance Communications, bid $1.8 billion for airwaves in 13 regions.”

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