After the successful auction of coal blocks in its first round, the government is likely to garner around Rs 82,000 crore to Rs 1 lakh crore through the auction for spectrum airways with eight telecom companies including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Reliance Jio expected to bid aggressively. The Department of Telecom will start the biggest ever spectrum auction on Wednesday with the eight companies placing their bids to acquire radio-waves in the four bands.
The government plans to sell 380.75 MHz of spectrum in three bands, the premium 900 MHz band, 1800 MHz and 800 MHz, besides 5 Mhz in the 2100 Mhz band across 17 out of 22 telecom areas in the country.
Most of the spectrum being put up for the auction is presently held by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Telecom. Since their licences are expiring in 2015-16 and they seek renewal of their licence. Mobile licences for Idea Cellular’s 9 circles, 6 circles of Airtel and 7 circles each of Vodafone and Reliance Telecom are coming up for renewal.
In all there are 29 licences in 18 service areas which expire in 2015-16, holding 184 MHz spectrum in the 900 MHz band and 34.2 MHz in 1800 MHz band. The government is likely to garner Rs 17,555 crore at a minimum auction start price for the 2,100 Mega-Hertz band or 3G spectrum, while it will get Rs 64,840 crore from the he reserve price for auction of 2G spectrum in 800 MHz, 900 Mhz and 1800 MHz bands.
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