Spectrum auction: Bids worth Rs 53,530 on Day 1

The first day of the mega spectrum auction saw approximately Rs 53,530 crore of worth bidding. In all, five rounds of bidding were completed on Saturday.

However, there were no bids for the most costliest spectrum band 700MHz.

The premium 700MHz band is being auctioned at a reserve price of Rs 11,485 crore per Mhz.

However, it seems that operators have decided to stay away from this band. If no bids come for the 700MHz band, then the government may fail to achieve the target to Rs 5.63 lakh crore from the current spectrum auction.

The 900MHz spectrum also didn’t receive any bid on Saturday.

According to sources, most of the bidding was witnessed in 2300MHz band.

There was also an excess demand for the 1800MHz spectrum, which means bidding for it will continue.

“The auction is on the expected lines — no bidding on 700 MHz and 1800MHz, showing interest and that too in the circle where there is some shortage,” said Prashant Singhal, global telecom leader at Ernst and Young, adding “We should see some intensity over the next day or so and closure of the auction within the next week.”

As much as 2,354.55MHz of frequencies are being put up for auction in seven bands — 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz and 2500MHz.

The radiowaves can be used for 2G, 3G and high-speed 4G mobile services.

Reliance Jio, Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and Aircel are in the fray for the spectrum auction.

While Reliance Jio, Airtel and RCom have pan-India 4G spectrum, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have an opportunity to bid for airwaves in the auction to expand their 4G service footprint for competitive advantage in the market.

Idea has 4G spectrum in 10 out of 22 telecom circles in the country. Vodafone, which has just brought in Rs 47,700 crore equity investment from its parent firm, has spectrum for 4G services in nine telecom circles.