Spectrum auction concludes, Centre garners Rs.65,789 cr.
What was touted as a ‘big bang’ spectrum auction ended with a whimper on Thursday Oct 06,2016, with the Centre receiving bids worth only ₹65,789 crore.
Not even 50 per cent of the airwaves on the block found any buyers.
The
Department of Telecom had invited bids for over 2000 MHz spectrum worth
₹5.3 lakh crore.
However the steep pricing, especially for the 700 MHz
band, resulted in a tepid response from telecom operators.
Vodafone emerged the highest bidder with bids worth over ₹20,000 crore,
followed by Airtel at ₹14,244 crore. Newcomer Reliance Jio won airwaves
across key 4G bands for ₹13,672 crore.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh D Ambani said,
“We have expanded our
spectrum footprint, thereby significantly enhancing capacity of our
all-IP data strong network and ensuring world-class services for all
Indians..”
Idea Cellular won spectrum worth ₹12,798 crore. Tata Teleservices pulled
off a surprise, winning airwaves in the key markets of Delhi and Mumbai
with a total bid of over ₹4,400 crore. RCom won spectrum in only one
circle for a total bid of ₹65 crore, while its new partner Aircel bagged
bandwidth for an estimated ₹1,100 crore
One of the big takeaways from the auction is that all the large
operators are now gearing up to offer data services on mobile.
The
bidding patterns reveal that operators have bought 3G and 4G spectrum in
areas where they currently do not have enough airwaves to offer
broadband services.
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