Spectrum auction ends in just 2 days with bids worth Rs 11,340 crore

An auction of radiowaves that carry voice and data signals for mobile phones ended within two days on Wednesday, garnering less than 12 per cent of the Rs 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 Rs 11,340 crore, sources with knowledge of the matter said.

Five rounds of bidding happened on the opening day on June 25, but Wednesday did not see much action, leading to officials declaring the end of the auction at around 1130 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 Rs 1.5 trillion 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.