India’s first auction for 5G spectrum concluded today, selling spectrum worth ₹1,50,173 crore. Reports said that billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio emerged as the top bidder to consolidate its leadership position.
Monday is the seventh day of the auction. The provisional figure for sale proceeds is ₹1,50,173 crore and the final number is being reconciled.
Reliance Industries Jio, rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, as well as billionaire Gautam Adani’s Adani Enterprises Ltd were among the bidders for 5G airwaves.
The mop-up from 5G spectrum, capable of offering ultra-high-speed mobile internet connectivity, is nearly double the ₹77,815 crore 4G airwaves sold last year and triple the ₹50,968.37 crore received from 3G auctions in 2010.
Jio was the top bidder for airwaves capable of offering nearly 10 times faster speeds, lag-free connectivity than 4G, and could enable billions of connected devices to share data in real time. It was followed by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
New entrant Adani Group is said to have bought 26 MHz of spectrum to set up a private telecom network.
With select participation from Vodafone Idea, both Bharti and Jio have created pan-India spectrum for 5G.
In the last six days of auction of 5G spectrum capable of offering ultra-high-speed internet, bids worth Rs 1,50,130 crore have been received. The seven fresh rounds of bidding held on Sunday saw an increase of ₹163 crore.
Telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had earlier said the 5G auction underscored that industry wants to expand and had entered a growth phase.
Vaishnaw expected the rollout of 5G – which government says can provide data speeds about 10 times faster than 4G – by October this year.
This year, about 72 GHz (Gigahertz) of radiowaves worth at least ₹ 4.3 lakh crore was put on the block. The auction was held for spectrum in different low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz), mid (3300 MHz) and high (26 GHz) frequency bands.
In addition to powering an ultra-low latency connection that allows full-length high-quality video or movie downloads to a mobile device in a matter of seconds (even in congested areas), the fifth generation or 5G e- Solutions like Health will enable. , connected vehicles, more immersive Augmented Reality and Metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming and more.
The auction garnered bids worth Rs 1.45 lakh crore on the first day on July 26, with only marginal incremental demand seen in some circles in the subsequent days.
