2G spectrum auction ends raking up Rs 61,162 crore for the government

14 Feb 2014 Evaluate

Giving a huge sigh of relief to the government, the 2G telecom spectrum auction after 10 days and 68 rounds of fierce bidding ended raising Rs 61,162 crore, much more than its initial estimate of about Rs 41,000 crore. Though, the telco’s are supposed to pay their bidding amount in staggered manner but that high bids has ensured a minimum revenue of Rs 18,296.36 crore to the government in the current financial year ending March 31.

The government had put on the block about 385 MHz of radiowaves in the 1800 MHz band, and 46 MHz in the 900 MHz band. Eight companies participated in the auction, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Aircel, Tata Teleservices, Telewings (Uninor) and Reliance Communications. Bids worth Rs 37,572.60 crore came for radiowaves in 900 Mhz band, and Rs 23,589.62 crore for 1800 Mhz band. About 78 Mhz remained unsold in 1800 Mhz. The most striking part of the 2G auction was that the total bid value of the spectrum in the two bands, crossed over 90 per cent of the money that the government had received in the 3G spectrum auction in 2010.

Bidding for the 900 MHz band in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata was very aggressive, while the Assam circle saw over 5-fold rise in bid price for the 1800 Mhz band. The other circles where the spectrum in the 1800 Mhz band was sold completely, included Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Delhi, Gujarat, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mumbai and West Bengal.

While the incumbent operators protected their turf against aggressive newcomer Reliance Jio and managed to hold their spectrum but they were forced to escalate bids to exorbitant levels to retain airwaves in the 900 Mhz band. Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest phone company acquired 115.0 MHz spectrum for a total consideration of Rs 18,530 crore. Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio won a minimum of 5 Mhz of 1800 Mhz bandwidth in 14 circle out of the 22 on offer. In the 1800 MHz band, Airtel won in 15 circles, Vodafone in 10 and Idea in 11.

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