5G spectrum: Telcos place bids worth Rs 1.45 lakh cr on day 1 of auction

The fifth round of the auction would begin on Wednesday.

The Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharati Airtel are likely to be the leading bidders.

Gautam Adani's Adani Data Networks, which wants to acquire the airwave rights to provide private network solutions along with enhanced cyber security in the airport, ports & logistics, power generation, transmission, distribution, and various manufacturing operations, also placed a bid.

Cash-strapped Vodafone-Idea is also vying for the 5G spectrum rights but based on its eligibility points, it can bid for much lesser amount than Reliance Jio Infocomm and Airtel.

Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the spectrum allocation process would be completed by August 15 and 5G services are expected to be rolled out in many cities by 2022-end.

The minister said the general public would be able to experience 5G services by year-end and their charges would be fixed by the telecom operators.

A total of 72,097.85 MHz of spectrum has been put to auction.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi had last month approved the proposal to conduct the spectrum auction through which spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders for providing 5G services to the public and enterprises.

It is expected that the mid and high band spectrum will be utilised by telecom service providers to roll out 5G technology-based services capable of providing speed and capacities, which would be about 10 times faster than current 4G services.

(With UNI inputs)