5G spectrum auction bidding enters day 4; bids worth Rs 1.49 lakh crore received in 16 rounds

New Delhi: Garnering bids worth Rs 1,49,623 crore in 16 rounds of bidding conducted so far, the auction of 5G spectrum for ultra-high-speed internet services entered day four on Friday.

Seen as a giant step forward in the telecommunication sector, India’s 5G auction started on 26 July, ahead of the planned rollout in 2023.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, on Wednesday and Thursday, were locked in intense bidding in the 1800 MHz band in Uttar Pradesh East circle.

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and a unit of Gautam Adani’s flagship Adani Enterprises are in the race to bid for a 5G spectrum that offers speeds about 10 times faster than 4G, lag-free connectivity and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time.

The first day saw players pumping in Rs 1.45 lakh crore, the numbers inched up incrementally over Wednesday and Thursday. Bidding activities resumed on Friday with the 17th round. Bids worth Rs 1,49,623 crore were received in 16 rounds of bidding till Thursday.

About 72,000 GHz (gigahertz) of radiowaves are up for bidding under nine bands with a validity of 20 years. The bands on offer are 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz.

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The Union Cabinet approved the auction on 15 June, allowing non-telecom service providers to bid for spectrum to set up 5G networks.

The telecommunications department anticipates that the 5G auction will generate between Rs 70,000 and Rs 1,000,000 crore

For the unversed, 5G or fifth generation is the latest upgrade in the long-term evolution (LTE) mobile broadband networks. According to United States-based semiconductors and wireless tech major Qualcomm, 5G is a global wireless network expected to deliver ultra-low latency (the delay users face as data make a round trip), increased reliability, more network capacity and availability.

5G internet services are believed to be about 10 times faster than its predecessor 4G. 5G services deliver up to 20 gigabytes per second (GBPS), peak data transfer speeds and 100+ megabytes (MBPS) per second, on average. It works in three bands: low, mid and high-frequency spectrum.

With inputs from agencies

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