The upcoming 2G spectrum auction will not see the participation of either of the Ambani brothers. In a big surprise for the telecom industry, Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Ltd as well as Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications did not submit bids for auction of 2G airwaves.
Friday was the last day for submitting the bids.
Besides RIL and RCoM, Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd (SSTL) too has decided to skip the auction. In a statement, the company said, “SSTL has consistently maintained that it has been unfairly penalised in the February ruling of the Supreme Court and has filed a curative petition seeking to restore its licences. SSTL was the only operator to have applied for a pan India CDMA spectrum in 2008. There is no finding or suggestion by the CAG report that CDMA spectrum was equally or anywhere near in demand as GSM. SSTL believes it has a strong case and is determined to await its hearing. “
Meanwhile, telecom operators including Bharti Airtel,Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Telenor and Tata Teleservices (TTSL) submitted applications for participating in spectrum auction starting November 12.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) sources confirmed about Bharti stating that it had bid for airwaves frequency at pan-India level.
DoT is conducting auction of airwaves frequencies in 1800 Mhz being used for GSM services at present and 800 Mhz band being used for CDMA services after Supreme Court cancelled 122 telecom licences belonging to eight different companies in 2G scam.
The government will auction maximum of 11 blocks of spectrum in 1800 Mhz band being used for GSM services each having 1.25 mhz of airwaves frequencies.
Norwegian telecom major Telenor also has submitted submitted its application for pre-qualification in the 1800 MHz band spectrum auction. The application was filed by Telewings Communication Services Private Limited, a fully owned Telenor Group company.
“Telenor Group has indicated its interest to take part in the auction, and provided all necessary documents and financial guarantees requested to be eligible for participation in its application. A final decision will be made before the auction starts”,Telenor said in a statement.