Govt. likely to garner over Rs. 100,000 cr from the ongoing spectrum auction

BANGALORE, INDIA: The eighth day of the spectrum auction saw the provisional bidding value reaching 1 lakh crore mark for the first time, with aggressive bidding from the telecom operators taking the bidding value to nearly Rs. 102,000 crore. Not much change in the bidding value is noticed after the tenth day of bidding also. After a slight drop on the ninth day, the bidding picked up steam again and reached Rs. 102,215 crore after tenth day of bidding.

There are eight operators in the fray, who are either looking to secure spectrum in respective service areas or to expand services in new areas. These names includes prominent operators such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices, Uninor, Aircel, Reliance Communications including new entrant, Reliance Jio Infocomm.

The bidding is going on in 2100 MHz, 1800 MHz, 900 MHz and 800 MHz bands. Majority of service areas are going at a premium over reserve price with aggressive bidding from operators, except 2100MHz which has not seen much takers so far.

The 800 MHz band saw strong demands in Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, North East areas on the eighth day. The ninth day of spectrum auction saw renewed interest from Andhra Pradesh, Haryana as well, along with Madhya Pradesh and North East. The tenth day saw high interest in this band from Andhra Pradesh along with Madhya Pradesh and North East, which are seeing continuous interest in the last couple of days of bidding.

At the end of 61 round of bidding on Saturday, over 87 percent of the spectrum has been provisionally allocated to bidders.  The competitive bidding will continue on Monday as well.