New Delhi. In the auction held for allocation of telecom spectrum, only 141.4 MHz spectrum worth Rs 11,340.78 crore could be sold. Bharti Airtel was the leader in spectrum purchase. It bought spectrum worth Rs 6,856.76 crore. The spectrum auction ended on the second day on Wednesday within a few hours of the bidding starting. Earlier on Tuesday, bids were placed in five rounds on the first day of the auction.
According to an official statement, Reliance Jio acquired spectrum worth Rs 973.62 crore in this auction, while Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL) bid for spectrum worth about Rs 3,510.4 crore. Overall, the government got a total of Rs 11,340.78 crore from this spectrum auction. This is just 12 percent of the estimated value of Rs 96,238 crore of the spectrum put up for sale by the government.
The last spectrum auction was held two years ago in which a record 5G spectrum worth over Rs 1.5 lakh crore was sold. Reliance Jio emerged as the top bidder in the seven-day auction. It acquired nearly half of all radio waves (worth Rs 88,078 crore).
At that time, telecom giant Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel had made a successful bid of Rs 43,084 crore, while Vodafone-Idea had bought the spectrum for Rs 18,799 crore. However, in the latest auction, Bharti Airtel has won and emerged as the leading bidder. Bharti Airtel has bought 97 MHz radio waves for Rs 6,856.76 crore in the spectrum auction concluded on Wednesday. This is 60 percent of the total spectrum sold in the auction. According to a statement from Bharti Airtel, 97 MHz spectrum has been acquired in 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz and 2,100 MHz bands through the auction.
With this purchase, Bharti Airtel will retain the largest share in the ‘medium-band spectrum pool’ in the country. Bharti Airtel said that its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom has acquired 15 MHz spectrum at an outlay of Rs 1,001 crore. 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz spectrum bands were offered in this auction.
However, the bids placed in the latest auction were much lower than expected. Market observers said that telecom companies are selectively focusing on radio waves mainly to renew spectrum and expand their reach. In this auction, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone-Idea (VIL) were competing for radio waves supporting high-speed mobile service.