5G spectrum auction — India’s first of its kind — has finally wrapped up on Monday after seven days of intense bidding from top industry players, including the likes of Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Adani Enterprises. This auction is of particular importance as it will lead to the rollout of 5G services by Indian telcos, expected to take place sometime in September this year. As Electronics & Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw recounted the top takeaways from the bidding rounds, here are nine points to note on the 5G Spectrum Auction.
1. About 71 percent of total spectrum that was bid has been sold, Vaishnaw said. A total of 72,098MHz of spectrum was offered for auction. Out of that, 51,236MHz has been sold in this round of auction.
2. The government received a total bid amount of Rs. 1,50,173 crores.
3. Four operators placed bids during the auction — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vi (Vodafone Idea), and Adani Data Networks.
4. Jio led with a total bid of Rs 88,078 crores. Airtel came in second with Rs 43,084 crores. Vi (Vodafone Idea) came in third with Rs 18,799 crores. And lastly, Adani Data Networks placed a bid of Rs 212 crores.
5. Jio won a spectrum quantum of 24,470MHz, in 26 GHz, 3,300MHz, 1,800MHz, 800MHz, and 700 MHz frequency bands.
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6. Airtel won a spectrum quantum of 19,867MHz, in 26GHz, 3,300MHz, 2,100MHz, 1,800MHz, and 900MHz.
7. Vi won a spectrum quantum of 6,228MHz, in 26GHz, 3,300MHz, 2,500MHz, 2,100MHz, and 1,800MHz.
8. Adani Data Networks won a spectrum quantum of 400MHz, in 26GHz band only.
9. The 5G Auction saw double the amount bid during the 4G spectrum auction last year (Rs 77,815 crores). The 5G amount is also triple of the amount bid in 2010’s 3G auction (Rs 50,968.37 crores).
10. Out of the total bid amount, around Rs 1.45 lakh crore was already bid on the first day of the auction — July 26.