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5g spectrum: After 4 days, total bids at ₹1,49,855 crore, auction to resume tomorrow | 10 points
As many as 23 rounds of bidding have been held thus far, with seven taking place on Friday. The auction began on July 26.
India's 5g spectrum auction continued for a fourth day on Friday, with total 23 rounds of bidding conducted thus far, and will resume on Saturday.
Here's what has happened thus far:
(1.) The Union government has received bids worth ₹1,49,855 crore for about 71% of the spectrum in four days of auction, said Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.
(2.) On Friday, bidding was held in a total of seven rounds. On July 26, the opening day of the sale, as many as four rounds were held, followed by five and seven legs on the next two days respectively.
(3.) By the end of the third day, the government had received total bids worth ₹1,49,623 crore across 16 rounds.
(4.) At the end of day 1, the overall value of the bids stood at more than ₹1.45 lakh crore; the next day, the cumulative value rose to ₹1,49,454 crore.
(5.) Initially, the auction was to be held across four days, but now stands extended till at least the fifth day.
(6.) The four biggest participants in the exercise are Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, Gautam Adani's Adani Group, Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea.
(7.) Put together, the quartet has submitted earnest money deposit (EMD) amounting to ₹21,800 crore. The EMD give a broad indication of the company's plan for picking up the spectrum in an auction.
(8.) In this case, the EMD amount is the highest for Reliance Jio ( ₹14,000 crore) and lowest for Adani Group ( ₹100 crore). Bharti Airtel deposited ₹5,500 crore as EMD and the corresponding figure for Vodafone Idea was ₹2,200 crore.
(9.) The 5g telecom spectrum auction was cleared by prime minister Narendra Modi-led cabinet in June. Spectrum worth 72 gigahertz (GHz), worth ₹4.3 trillion, and with a validity period of 20 years is on sale.
(10.) 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.
(With ANI inputs)
