5G spectrum auction garners Rs 1.49 lakh crore

On Friday, seven rounds of bidding took place, and incrementally Rs 231.6 crore was recorded

The government has received bids worth Rs 1,49,967 crores in the 5G spectrum auction on Saturday and bidding will continue on Sunday also.

Seven rounds of bidding took place on Saturday, said the Department of Telecom officials here. Demand in the Uttar Pradesh East circle was the reason for increase in proceeds. Jio and Airtel engaged in intense bidding in UP East circle for 1800 MHz band. The fifth day of the auction garnered additional Rs 112 crore, said the official. The auction started on July 26.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and a unit of billionaire Gautam Adani's flagship Adani Enterprises are in the race to bid for 5G spectrum, which offers speeds about 10 times faster than 4G, lag-free connectivity, and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time.

After a flying start on Tuesday that saw players pouring in Rs 1.45 lakh crore on the first day, the numbers inched up incrementally over Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday as Jio and Airtel engaged in intense bidding in UP East circle for 1800 MHz band.

In all, 72 GHz (gigahertz) of radiowaves worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore is on the block. The auction is being held for spectrum in various 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.

(With agency inputs)