The latest round of telecom spectrum auction, mainly to power 5G services, turned out to be among the shortest, ending on the second day of bidding. The government mopped up 11,340.8 crore during the two-day auction that concluded on Wednesday, officials said.
The muted bidding for airwaves resulted in only 1.34 per cent of the spectrum put up for sale being bought. Of the 10,523 MHz of spectrum on offer at a reserve price of ₹96,317.65 crore, telcos picked up only 141 MHz.
In the 2024 Interim Budget, the government had given a ₹1.2 trillion non-tax revenue collection estimate from the telecom sector for FY25. This was 28.5 per cent higher than the 93,540 crore FY24 revised estimate. Considering that telcos will make the payment for the purchased spectrum over the next 20 years, it's not immediately clear whether the gamut of proceeds from the latest sale will affect the target, according to an official.
Bharti Airtel topped the buyers' list, with bids worth ₹6,856 crore. The Sunil Mittalled telco purchased 97 MHz of spectrum.
Telecom market leader Reliance Jio bought the lowest amount of spectrum (14.4 MHz) at 973 crore. Vodafone Idea (Vi) picked up the second-largest amount of spectrum (30 MHz) at ₹3,510.4 crore. A large chunk of the purchases by both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea was towards renewal of spectrum in certain bands.
This story is from the June 27, 2024 edition of Business Standard.
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This story is from the June 27, 2024 edition of Business Standard.
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