5G Auctions Roll into Day 4 Amidst aggressive bidding for UP East

Surpassing industry predictions that India’s 5G spectrum auction would be over in two days, bidding is now spilling over into the 4^th day after 16 rounds of bidding and a total of INR 1,49,623 crore total bidding amount in all bands.

The first day saw four rounds of bidding and a figure of 1.45 lakh crore. Ashwini Kumar Vaishnav, Minister of communications and Information Technology had then said, 1.45 lakh crore is an important number that showed the entire industry was moving towards a positive territory in terms of new investments, quality of services, new technology.

A marginal change in the amount happened in the next two days, to bring the figure up to 1.49 lakh crore. As per analysts and market research firms, the auctions were expected to close at around 1.20 lakh crore. The incremental gains from 1.45 lakh crore to 1.49 lakh crore came entirely from bidding for UP East circle, which comprises of Prayagraj, Varanasi, Lucknow, Kanpur and Gorakhpur, saw aggressive bidding between Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel in the 1800MHz band.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel also aggressively fought for the mid-band airwaves in nine other circles, including Madhya Pradesh, UP- West, Chattisgarh, Kerala, Rajasthan, Karnataka, Odisha, Jammu & Kashmir.

A total of 72 Gigahertz across all bands, worth INR 4.3 lakh crore has been put up for bid by the Government.

After 16 rounds of bidding, Ashwini Vaishnav, Minister of communications and Information Technology told the media, “The 16^th round was over by 6.30 p.m. and it took 45 minutes for each round of bidding today. The good thing is that the industry is committed to taking the services to rural areas... the biddings which are taking place now are basically for spreading the services. The first day was about buying spectrum, but now it is about where to buy the spectrum for.”

Reliance Jio has outspent its competition by around INR 84,300 crore to obtain 130 units of 1,800MHz band, 3.3-3.67GHz spectrum, and 700MHz and 26GHz airwaves.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea’s estimated spending stands at INR 46,100 crore and INR 18,400 crore, respectively, for airwaves in the 1,800MHz and 2,100MHz bands.

New entrant Adani Data Networks is only bidding for the 26GHz band and has spent around INR 900-1,000 crore.

Telecom Minister Vaishnav was happy that the 700MHz band was finally sold, unlike the previous two auctions of 2016 and 2021, when it went unsold due to exorbitant pricing. The 700MHz band is ideal for coverage in high-density areas.

The C-band with frequencies between 3.3-3.67GHz and the high-band of 26GHz also witnessed heavy bidding. The Telecom Minister Vaishnav added, “As I said yesterday also, there is interest for each band and biddings are taking place across bands. It is a healthy sign and the auction will spill over (to Friday),” ie today.