“The auction, where a total of 10 GHz of spectrum ranging between 800 MHz to 26 GHz was offered, got total bids worth ₹11,340 crore,” sources said.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

An auction of radiowaves that carry voice and data signals for mobile phones ended within two days on June 26, garnering less than 12% of the ₹96,238 crore minimum value that the government had estimated for the spectrum on offer.

“The auction, where a total of 10 GHz of spectrum ranging between 800 MHz to 26 GHz was offered, got total bids worth ₹11,340 crore,” sources said.

Five rounds of bidding happened on the opening day on June 25, but on June 26 (Wednesday), there was not much action, leading to officials declaring the end of the auction at around 11.30 hrs.

“The total bids received is more or less the same, as what came in on Tuesday,” sources said, adding only 140-150 MHz are estimated to have been sold. On offer were radiowaves in the bands of — 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz.

During the last auction in 2022, which turned out to be a seven-day affair, a record over ₹1.5 lakh crore worth of 5G telecom spectrum was sold, with billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio emerging as the top bidder, cornering nearly half of all the airwaves (worth ₹88,078 crore).

At that time, telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel made a successful bid of ₹43,084 crore, while Vodafone Idea bought Spectrum for ₹18,799 crore.

New Delhi:

The government will continue to auction telecom spectrum, and the administrative allocation route will be used sparingly, only in those cases where it is technically not feasible to do so or for areas that are strategic in nature, sources said.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) is gearing up to hold the next round of spectrum auction on June 6 for eight spectrum bands (800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz, and 26 GHz) meant for mobile phone services at a base price of about Rs 96,317 crore.

The spectrum will be assigned for 20 years and successful bidders will be allowed to make payments in 20 equal annual installments in the coming mega auction.

Sources asserted that the spectrum for mobile services will continue to be given through the auction process.

As enacted in the Telecom Act, 2023, only very limited and narrowly defined cases, including spectrum for walkie-talkie for police organisations, radar for weather forecasting, radar and communication for ships, communication for space and satellite applications, communication and radar for the Army, Air Force and Navy and state-owned telecom corporation like BSNL, airwaves will be given on administrative basis, sources said.

Of the total allocations, these amount to a minuscule, just 5-7 per cent of the cases.

The government had on Monday moved the Supreme Court seeking a modification of the 2012 order. The modification sought was to allow for administrative allocation in select cases where it is not technically feasible to use the auction route. However, for the majority of the spectrum, the auction will continue to be the mode of allocation.

The matter in the Supreme Court is basically an application filed (in the Supreme Court) following the due process before introducing the Telecom Bill in parliament, sources clarified. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Representational image only.
| Photo Credit: The Hindu

The upcoming spectrum auction will start from May 20, according to the notice inviting application released by the Department of Telecom on March 8. Government will auction eight spectrum bands for mobile phone services at a base price of ₹96,317.65 crore.

Spectrum which is held by certain companies undergoing insolvency processes as well as frequencies expiring this year will also be put on auction.