India's Biggest Spectrum Auction: Record Rs 1.45 Lakh Crore Worth Bids Received For 5G Airwaves On First Day

The first day of the ongoing 5G spectrum auction attracted strong interest from the bidders with the government receiving record bids worth Rs 1.45 lakh crore.

The spectrum auction, which is India's biggest-ever, began on Tuesday (26 July) with a total of 72 GHz (gigahertz) of 5G airwaves worth Rs 4.3 lakh crore on offer began on Tuesday (26 July).

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.

In the maiden day of the auction, the crucial 700 MHz band saw bidding for the first time.

Meanwhile, the mid-band (3.3-3.67 GHz) and high-band (26 GHz) airwaves attracted strong interest, reports NewsOnAIR.

Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Tuesday told the reporters that the revenue collection of Rs 1.45 lakh crore on the first day of the auction is a new record, surpassing the previous record of Rs 1.09 lakh crore revenue collection in 2015 spectrum auctions.

“This is a record revenue collection. The previous record was ₹1.09 lakh crore [in 2015 auctions]. So, this is a very encouraging response. This much response for 5G clearly shows that the industry has turned from its difficult times which were caused by lots and lots of litigation and other things," he said, reports The Hindu.

The bidding which starts at 10 am continue till 6 pm, will carry over into the next day, if there exists a demand for spectrum and bidders are putting in bids.

The number of days the auction ultimately stretches to will depend on the actual demand for radiowaves and the strategy of individual bidders, although the broad industry consensus is that it may last up to two days.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and a unit of billionaire Gautam Adani's flagship Adani Enterprises are in the race to bid for 5G spectrum, that offers ultra-high speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G), lag-free connectivity, and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time.

In addition to powering ultra-low latency connections, which allow downloading full-length high-quality video or movie to a mobile device in a matter of seconds (even in crowded areas), Fifth Generation or 5G would enable solutions such as e-health, connected vehicles, more immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming among others.

(With inputs from PTI)