Eight Indian telecoms operators have collectively paid 204.35 billion rupees (€2.88 billion) in deposits to allow them to take part in next month’s mobile spectrum auction.
The sums in volved show that bidding in the auction is likely to be aggressive, according to a Press Trust of India report, since the size of the deposit paid by an operator is directly linked to the amount of spectrum it is able to bid for.
The biggest spender was market newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm, which handed over around INR45 billion (€634 million), the news service said, citing an unnamed official source.
Reliance Jio is due to enter the Indian mobile market with the launch of 4G services in the second quarter of this year. It holds a unified licence and already has spectrum in the 2.3 GHz and 1800 MHz bands.
In the upcoming auction, due to begin on 4 March, the telcos will compete for spectrum in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2.1 GHz bands. The bulk of those airwaves are currently in the hands of Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications (owned by Anil Ambani, brother of Reliance Jio owner Mukesh Ambani). The licences in question expire in 2015-2016.
Those telcos will be keen to retain their spectrum, therefore sums raised in the auction could be sizeable.
Indeed, the state expects to raise more than INR800 billion (€11.3 billion) from the process.
The other participants in the auction are Tata Teleservices, Telenor’s Uninor, and Aircel, according to the PTI.
