Comments
All the eight telecom companies that had submitted applications, including those of the Ambani Brothers, Sunil Mittal, Kumar Mangalam Birla and the Tatas, have qualified for bidding in the spectrum auctions.
The Department of Telecom on Tuesday released the pre-qualified bidders’ list for the upcoming auction — both for 2G and 3G waves — that will begin on March 4.
Except for Aircel and Tata Teleservices, all the other qualifiers will be able to bid for spectrum in the 2100 MHz, 1800 MHz, 900 MHz and 800 MHz frequencies. Aircel and Tata Teleservices do not operate in all circles.
The Centre received bank guarantees or earnest money deposits worth ₹20,436 crore from these companies for sale of the airwaves. The maximum amount came from Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio (₹4,500 crore), followed by Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel (₹4,336 crore), Aditya Birla Group’s Idea (₹4,000 crore) and Vodafone (₹3,700 crore).
Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices and Telewings Communications have deposited ₹1,175 crore, ₹1,500.05 crore and ₹724.95 crore, respectively.
Aircel deposited the least: ₹500 crore.
According to industry analysts, there will be stiff competition among the companies during the auctions as 29 spectrum licenses are due to expire this year in 18 service areas.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.