Telecom spectrum auction receives winning bids worth Rs 77,146 crore: Ravi Shankar Prasad

Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that on the first day of the Telecom spectrum auction today, winning bids received till 6 P.M. were worth Rs 77,146 crore. He said, bidding took place for spectrum in 800, 900, 1,800, 2,100 and 2,300 Megahertz.

Mr Prasad said, participants did not bid for 700 and 2,500 Megahertz and the spectrum auctions will resume tomorrow.

All three telecom operators—Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Idea Ltd—participated in the sale, which is being conducted after over four years. Seven bidders were present in the spectrum auction that was conducted in 2016.

As per published reports, Reliance Jio had submitted an earnest money deposit (EMD) of Rs 10,000 crore for the auctions, which is the highest among the three private telecom operators. It was followed by Bharti Airtel, which submitted an EMD of Rs 3,000 crore and Vodafone Idea has submitted the EMD of Rs 475 crore.

A statement said, the bidder-wise details of quantity won and the amount payable will be available only after the conclusion of the auction. The Spectrum will be offered for the assignment for a validity period of 20 years.

A total of over 2,251 megahertz is being offered with a total valuation of more than Rs 3,92,332 crore. The Ministry said, Spectrum auction is a transparent process of spectrum assignment to successful bidders.

By winning the right to use spectrum through the auction, incumbent telecom service providers will be able to augment their network capacity whereas new players will be able to start their services.