Against an earlier estimate of about Rs. 82,000 crore, the Modi government is likely to raise in excess of Rs. 1,00,000 crore from the biggest-ever sale of 2G and 3G airwaves.

In 24 rounds of bidding since March 4, the government has already received commitments from telecom players totalling Rs. 86,000 crore. The auction will resume on Monday. Mobile users can expect improved quality of services — be it fewer call drops or better data speeds — with service providers garnering additional spectrum through the auctions.

“The bidding has taken place in all bands. At present, a value of approximately Rs. 86,000 crore has been committed by bidders in respect of provisionally won spectrum. There is still spectrum, which is yet to be sold,” the Ministry of Communications and IT said in an official statement.

The Budget papers Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley placed before Parliament on February 28 said the estimate of collection of non-tax revenue from sources such as successful spectrum auctions during the current financial year had been revised upward by 2.5 per cent to Rs. 2,17,832 crore, which is 1.6 per cent of the GDP.

The government is selling spectrum in the CDMA frequency of 800MHz and the GSM bands of 900MHz, 1,800MHz and 2,100MHz. Eight firms — Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications, Aircel, Reliance Jio Infocom, Uninor and Tata Teleservices — are in the fray. Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications hold most of the spectrum up for sale in the auction. Their licences are due to expire in 2015-16.

“Considering that large stakes are involved for the government and the companies, we should not be surprised that the auctions go on for over 100 days,” Hemant Joshi, partner, Deloitte Haskins & Sells, said.