* No bidders emerge for GSM spectrum
* Single bidder emerges for CDMA auction
* Prices may be cut "significantly"-analyst (Adds analyst comments, details)
Feb 26 (Reuters) - Shares in Indian mobile network operatorsrallied on Tuesday with Bharti Airtel Ltd rising asmuch as 9.3 percent to the highest level since Feb. 1, on hopesthe government will be forced to cut the reserve price forairwaves after just one potential bidder emerged for a $7.9billion spectrum sale next month.
The Indian mobile unit of Russian conglomerate Sistema was the only bidder for the CDMA band airwaves andthere was no applicant for the dominant GSM bands that accountfor close to 85 percent of the spectrum being put on the block.
Leading carriers Bharti Airtel and the Indian unit ofVodafone Group Plc, which are required to bid forairwaves in the premium 900 megahertz band to renew theirpermits in some key zones, stayed away from bidding afterchallenging the auction in a court.
"Earlier the expectation was these operators will becompelled to bid," said a Mumbai-based telecommunicationsanalyst at a foreign bank. "Now that they did not bid, it isalmost certain that the prices will have to come down," said theanalyst, who did not want to be named as he is not authorised tospeak to the media.
Carriers mostly shunned another auction in November, sayingthe minimum bid price for the airwaves was too high, forcing thegovernment to cut prices by about 30 percent in some key zones.That cut was not sufficient, the industry says.
Bharti Airtel would have had to pay about $1.4 billion atthe current reserve price to buy back the premium band airwavesin the Delhi and Kolkata service areas, according to an estimateby BNP Paribas.
Bharti Airtel shares were trading 4.2 percent higher at 320rupees as of 0429 GMT, while shares in Idea Cellular Ltd, India's third-biggest mobile carrier by revenue, wereup 3.2 percent at 117.3 rupees.
Idea is not required to bid in the March auction, but anypossible cut in reserve price will also help it when it buysairwaves in subsequent auctions.
"There are chances that the government will reduce pricessignificantly," said Archana Shivane, a sector analyst at K.R.Choksey Shares and Securities Pvt Ltd in Mumbai. "That willconsequently make Bharti, Vodafone, Idea pay lower spectrumprices to government. So ultimately that will come on (their)balance sheet in terms of lower debt," she said.
(Reporting by Devidutta Tripathy in New Delhi and Rafael Namand Aradhana Aravindan in Mumbai; Editing by Matt Driskill)
Vodafone (VOD)
