The surprise among them was the state-owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), which has applied for nine circles. Andhra Pradesh, Harayana, Punjab, Kerala, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh (West), Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan are the nine circles that MTNL is interested in.

Meanwhile, BPL has applied in 13 new circles after dithering for a week. The circles that BPL has applied for include Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, AP, Haryana, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, UP(East) and UP(West).

Similarly, Tata Teleservices has added another five circles to the five applications that it had filed on Thursday. The final list of circles applied for stands as follows for Tata Teleservices: Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Punjab, Haryana, Kerala, Rajasthan, UP (West) and Bihar.

The proponents of `limited mobility' cite the enthusiastic response as an affirmation of the policy which has encouraged such a response. However, the dream of improving tele-density might very well be limited to just the affluent category `A' and `B' circles. As situation stands, there have been no applications for the category `C' circles apart from Essar (as Aircel Digilink), which has applied for all the 21 circles. Hence, while there are as many as nine applicants for the lucrative circle such as Delhi, there is only Essar for the a circle like Orissa.