5G spectrum auction receives bids worth Rs 1.49 lakh crore on Day 2

The government on Wednesday said it has received a record Rs 1.49 lakh crore worth of bids in the 5G spectrum auction so far and the sale will continue for Thursday also.

The bids, which started on Tuesday, saw the participation of Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel, Gautam Adani as well as Vodafone Idea.

On the opening day on Tuesday, the government had received spectrum bids worth Rs 1.45 lakh crore after the completion of four rounds of spectrum bidding.

"The second day of the auction has ended and it will continue on Thursday. Bids worth Rs 1,49,454 crore have been received so far at the end of 9th round" Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told media here on Wednesday.

The minister said all bands of the spectrum are seeing demand. 700 MHz saw the highest demand as the telecom companies were keen on providing service to uncovered remote areas. Far-flung areas required a low band of spectrum, the Minister said.

Though details of who bid the highest spectrum is not known, it is expected that Jio has likely bid for the highest spectrum followed by Airtel and Vodafone. While Adani Data Networks should have picked some spectrum pan-India.

The government is targeting to allocate the spectrum by mid-August and 5G services are expected to start rolling out by September-October 2022.

The 5G spectrum offers ultra-high speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G), lag-free connectivity, and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time.

The auction is being held for spectrum in various low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), mid (3300 MHz) and high (26 GHz) frequency bands.