Telecom companies placed bids worth Rs 11,000 crore in 5 rounds on Tuesday, the first day of the spectrum auction. The auction will resume on Wednesday. Let us tell you that the government is auctioning 10,500 MHz spectrum at a reserve price of Rs 96,238 crore. For this, bids have been invited from telecom service providers.
Auction details
According to the report released by the Department of Telecommunications regarding the first day of the auction, the bids have been placed mainly in the 900 and 1,800 MHz spectrum bands. Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are participating in this auction.
Jio and Airtel
Reliance Jio has deposited the highest advance amount of Rs 3,000 crore for the spectrum auction. On this basis the company can bid for the maximum number of radio waves. Bharti Airtel has deposited Rs 1,050 crore and Vodafone Idea (VIL) has deposited Rs 300 crore as earnest money. Let us tell you that this is the 10th auction since the spectrum sale process started online in 2010. The spectrum auction was last held in August, 2022, in which radio waves were offered for 5G services for the first time.
The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) had issued a notice inviting applications (NIA) on March 8 for the spectrum auction. The Ministry of Communications has said to bid for 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz spectrum bands in this auction.
