5G: How much money did the govt collect in previous auction rounds?

In the 2022 5G Spectrum auction, Reliance Jio emerged as the top buyer in the auction of airwaves, spending over Rs 88,000 crore, more than half the total bidding amount of Rs 1.5 trillion

The auction for the 5G spectrum in India concluded on August 1, 2022. The auction will fetch the highest amount ever to the government of India at over Rs 1.5 trillion. Reliance Jio emerged as the top buyer in the airwaves auction, spending over Rs 88,000 crore, more than half the total budding amount.

Bharti Airtel stood a distant second by spending over Rs 43,000 crore. The other two bidders, Vodafone Idea (VIL) and Adani Data Networks (ADN) bid for selective spectrum.

With the auction now completed, the Ministry of Telecom stated that the spectrum would be allocated by August 2022, and the rollouts will most likely commence by October 2022.

A report by Nomura, however, said, "Given the nascent 5G ecosystem (modest ~7% of the overall smartphone base is 5G enabled) and evolving use cases, we think 5G rollouts would likely be granular, starting with metros and larger cities."  

Nevertheless, this is the highest amount the government has ever received from the auction of the telecom spectrum.

2012 auction: 2G Spectrum, Rs 9,400 crore

Six companies, Airtel, Idea, Vodafone, Videocon, Telewings and Tata, participated in the auction fetching the government Rs 9,400 crore. It was far below the government's target of Rs 28,000 crore. No bids were received for the pan-India spectrum, which cost Rs 14,000 crore.

 In February 2012, the Supreme Court of India (SC) cancelled the licenses of new telecom players. Out of every 11 blocks, three were reserved for the new players.

In the 2G spectrum case, which surfaced in 2010, then telecom minister A Raja was accused of causing a loss worth Rs 1.75 trillion to the government of India by issuing 2G licenses at cheaper rates.

It was alleged that he had fixed the prices based on 2001 and not 2008. Along with Raja, MK Kanimozhi, then telecom secretary Siddharth Behura and Raja's private secretary RK Chandolia were also accused.

2013 auction: 2G Spectrum, Rs 6,400 crore

Only one bidder Sistema Shyam TeleServices Limited (SSTL), participated in the auction under the brand name MTS.

The government planned to auction 50 MHz of airwaves in the 1800 MHz band and 76.25 MHz spectrum in the 800 MHz band. 900 MHz band and 1,800 MHz bands were also auctioned. However, the only bids received were for the 800 MHz band.

2014 auction: 2G Spectrum, Rs 61,200 crore

Eight companies, Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea, Aircel, Reliance Communications, Reliance Jio, Tata Teleservices, and Telewings, had participated in the auction fetching the government Rs 61,200 crore. The 2G spectrum of 900 and 1800 MHz were auctioned in the year.

Airtel emerged as the biggest bidder, followed by Reliance Jio.

2015 auction: 2G and 3G Spectrum, Rs 1.09 trillion

Eight companies, Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea, Aircel, Reliance Communications, Reliance Jio, Tata Teleservices, and Uninor, had given their names for the auction.

Spectrum in 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands were auctioned. Idea emerged as the largest bidder spending Rs 30,306 crore. It was followed by Airtel and Vodafone at Rs 29,130 crore and Rs 29,959 crore, respectively.

2016 auction: 2G, 3G ang 4G Spectrum, Rs 65,789.12 crore

Seven companies, namely Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Aircel and Reliance Jio, had applied to participate in the auction.

The government auctioned seven bands of 700 MHz, 850 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz in 22 cities across the country.

It fetched Rs 65,789.12 crore for the government. It was the first auction when the spectrum of 700 MHz was auctioned. However, it remained unsold.

2021 auction: 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G Spectrum, Rs 77,814.80 crore

Three companies, Airtel, Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Reliance Jio, participated in the auction. Reliance Jio emerged as the biggest spender with Rs 57,122 crore worth of bidding. Airtel followed it at Rs 18,698 crore. The spectrum of 700 MHz and 2,500 MHz remained unsold in this auction.

2022 auction: 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G Spectrum, Rs 1.5 trillion

Four companies, Reliance Jio, Adani Data Networks, Bharti Airtel and Vi, participated in the auction. It fetched the highest-ever amount of Rs 1.5 trillion to the government.

Jio emerged as the largest bidder with Rs 88,078 crore worth of bids. Bharti Airtel followed it at Rs 43,084 crore.

The spectrum in 700 MHz was sold for the first time in 2022. Jio bought the spectrum, which could take the company a step closer to launching standalone 5G services.

"700 MHz band could potentially give R-Jio an edge in terms of network quality, especially indoors, and this could increase investors’ concerns on further spectrum outgo for Bharti if R-Jio were able to offer significant differentiation in network quality (vs Bharti) with 5G on 700 bands," the Nomura report said.