Spectrum auction for mobile radio wave services concluded its first day with bids amounting to nearly Rs 11,000 crore on Tuesday.
The government has put over 10,500 Mhz spectrum in eight frequency bands, valued at Rs 96,238 crore at base price, for the auction.
"There were no fresh bids in the morning session. The auction has ended with bids worth about Rs 11,000 crore," the source said, adding that Bharti Airtel has emerged as the biggest bidder in the auction.
This 10th auction features all available spectrum across the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz, and 26 GHz bands.
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During the last auction in 2022, which turned out to be a seven-day affair, a record over Rs 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 Rs 88,078 crore).
At that time, telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel made a successful bid of Rs 43,084 crore, while Vodafone Idea bought Spectrum for Rs 18,799 crore.
Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea will be the major participants in the auction. Reliance Jio has submitted the highest earnest money deposit (EMD) of Rs 3,000 crore, giving it the strongest bidding capability among the three telecom operators.
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Bharti Airtel has deposited Rs 1,050 crore, while Vodafone Idea has deposited Rs 300 crore.
The last spectrum auction was held in August 2022. It was the first auction to include 5G services and had generated over Rs 1.5 lakh crore ($18 billion) for the government by leading mobile operators.
(With Inputs From PTI)
