NEW DELHI: On the first day of the spectrum auction, which saw five rounds of bidding, telecom service providers placed bids worth about Rs 11,000 crore. The government has put over 10,500 Mhz spectrum, including airwaves for 5G services, valued at Rs 96,238 crore on the block.
According to the Day 1 spectrum auction report issued by the Department of Telecom, biddings took place mainly in the 900 and 1800 Mhz bands. The Department sold 94.4
MHz spectrum on the first day out of 10,523 MHz spectrum available. The auction will resume on Wednesday.
An analysis done by telecom expert Parag Kar showed that on first day, telcos bought 41 MHz spectrum in 900 MHz band for Rs 4,465 crore, 48.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band for Rs 6,306.2 crore and 5 MHz in the 2100 MHz band for Rs 360 crore.
Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are participating in the auction. Jio has deposited the highest earnest money of Rs 3,000 crore for the auction, which provides the company with the firepower to bid for maximum radiowaves among the three telcos. Airtel has submitted an earnest money deposit (EMD) of Rs 1,050 crore and VIL of Rs 300 crore.
COAI, the lobbying body for private telecom companies, said the auction will help catalyse the rapid rollout of 5G services across the country, leading to enhanced coverage and improved connectivity.
“The 5G auctions will catalyse the rapid rollout of 5G services across the country, leading to enhanced coverage and vastly improved connectivity. Moreover, successful deployment of 5G will be a major stride towards achieving digital inclusion,” SP Kochhar, director-general of COAI, said in a statement It is the 10th spectrum auction since the process for sale of radiowaves started through an online bidding process in 2010.
The last spectrum auction was held in August 2022, which, for the first time, included radio waves for 5G services. The previous spectrum auction generated more than Rs 1.5 lakh crore ($18 bn) for the government from the nation’s three top mobile operators and newcomer Adani Group.