Jio emerges as top bidder with a bid of ₹88,078 crore in 5G spectrum auction

|HT|

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio has emerged as the top bidder with a bid of ₹88,078 crore rupees while Adani group bid stood at ₹212 crore at the 5G spectrum auction, telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said. The minister announced as the auction ended with the total bids amounting to over 1.50 lakh crore over 40 rounds. Of the 72,098 MHz of spectrum offered across 10 bands, 51,236 MHz, or 71 per cent, was sold.

The auction garnered bids worth ₹1.45 lakh crore on the first day on July 26, with subsequent days seeing only marginal incremental demand in some circles. Reliance Jio acquired spectrum across several bands, including the coveted 700 MHz band that can provide 6-10 km of signal range and forms a good base for fifth generation (5G) in all 22 circles in the country. A single tower can cover more area if 700 Mhz is used.

Adani Group bought the spectrum in the 26GHz band, which is not for public networks. Telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel bought a 19,867 MHz airwave across different bands for ₹43,084 crore.

Vodafone Idea Ltd bought spectrum for ₹18,784 crore. In all, ₹150,173 crore of bids were received, Vaishnaw said. .

The government, he said, in the first year will get a ₹13,365 crore payment for the spectrum. He also said the 5G services could be launched by October.

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