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The telecom spectrum auction continued for the fifth day on Saturday as interested operators continued to bid for Uttar Pradesh (UP) East, where the battle is going on for the 1800MHz, which can get maximum return on investment in future.
However, the amount fetched till now is still a bit shy away from reaching ₹1.50-lakh crore and analysts are hopeful of reaching that level. The biddings were ₹112 crore higher than the amount of ₹1,49,855 crore on Friday and reached ₹1,49,967 crore on Saturday.
The day saw six rounds of bidding started at 10 am and closed with the 30th round so far since the auctions started on Tuesday. The auction will continue on Sunday, a first in the history of spectrum auctions, as the telecom service providers (TSPs) requested the government so that they can conclude the same day.
“Major TSPs have requested to continue the auctions on Sunday also, as there are limited circles left now. The auction will continue on Sunday and is expected to conclude with another round or two of bidding process,” a government source closed to the development told BusinessLine.
On Friday, about 71 per cent of the total spectrum put on the block has been provisionally sold so far, Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said, terming it a “good response.” On Friday, seven rounds of bidding took place, and incrementally ₹232 crore was recorded.
The government has put a total of 72 GHz (gigahertz) of radiowaves worth at least ₹4.3-lakh crore up for the bidding. The auction, which was expected to last for a day or two, has now extended to the sixth day on Sunday.
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.
The competition is intense between billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio and Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel. Vodafone Idea and a unit of billionaire Gautam Adani’s flagship Adani Enterprises have also are in the race for 5G spectrum, which offers speeds about 10 times faster than 4G, lag-free connectivity, and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time.
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