The government has garnered bids worth around Rs. 77,000 crore at the end of three days of spectrum auction as telecom operators continued to bid aggressively.
“The bidding has taken place in all bands. At present, a value of approximately Rs. 77,000 crore has been committed by bidders in respect of provisionally won spectrum. There is still spectrum, which is yet to be sold. Bidding would recommence tomorrow [Saturday],” the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said.
The DoT added the auction of spectrum in 2100 MHz, 1800 MHz, 900 MHz and 800 MHz bands recommenced on Friday and 6 rounds of bidding were completed.
Till now, 17 rounds of bidding had taken place in three days. The auction will continue on Saturday, it added.
The government is expecting to raise over Rs. 82,000 crore from the auction, but the final amount is expected to go much higher if bids continue at such an aggressive pace.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are locked with Reliance Jio to protect their spectrum they need to carry voice and data in the world’s second biggest smartphone market. In all, eight bidders are in fray.
Most of the spectrum put up for auction is presently held by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Telecom. Their licences are expiring in 2015-16.
