News
First day of spectrum mega-sale attracts bids totalling INR535 billion.
India’s biggest spectrum auction got underway on Saturday, with bids totalling 535.3 billion rupees (€7.2 billion) at the end of the first day.
And the Economic Times reported on Monday that some expect the process to wrap up sooner rather than later.
"We should see some intensity over the next day or so and closure of the auction within the week," predicted Prashant Singhal, EY’s global telecom practice leader, in the report.
By comparison, India’s last spectrum auction, which took place in March 2015, took 19 days to complete.
In this latest auction, 2,200 MHz of spectrum are up for sale across the 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2.1 GHz, 2.3 GHz and 2.5 GHz bands.
According to Monday’s ET report, there has been healthy competition between the likes of Vodafone and Idea Cellular for 1800-MHz and 2.3-GHz spectrum, while Tata Teleservices has been fighting hard to renew its Mumbai frequencies, focusing on the 1800 MHz band.
However, the 700 MHz band has yet to receive a single bid, with local news reports blaming the high reserve price.
Meanwhile the 800 MHz band has been paid little attention, with bids for frequencies in just four circles.
The government has set its sights on raising INR5.44 trillion from the auction. Unless bidding picks up soon, it looks for all the world like it will miss that target by a wide margin.
