New Delhi: Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said that on the first day of Telecom spectrum auction today, winning bids received till 6 P.M. were worth Rs. 77,146 crore.
“Bidding took place for spectrum in 800, 900, 1,800, 2,100 and 2,300 Megahertz” he said.
Mr Prasad said, participants did not bid for 700 and 2,500 Megahertz and the spectrum auctions will resume tomorrow.
First time in four years, India’s telecom spectrum auction started Monday for the fourth-generation (4G) mobile networks. The Union Cabinet, on December 16, approved the auction of 2,251 megahertz of the spectrum by the end of FY2020-21 at the reserved price of Rs 3.92 lakh crore.
The government will offer spectrum across seven bands—700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1,800MHz, 2,100MHz, 2,300MHz, and 2,500MHz, according to a notice issued by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in January.
The three big telcos – Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Reliance Jio will participate in the auction. The spectrum bought will be valid for 20 years.
