Seven telecom service providers have qualified to bid for the upcoming biggest-ever airwaves auction starting from October 1, according to official data released by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Tata Teleservices are the telecom network operators that have qualified for the spectrum auction.

Reliance Jio Infocomm, the only pan India 4G operator, can bid in any licensed service area (LSA) across the country, while Reliance Communications can bid across the country except northeast and Assam.

Jio, which recently launched 4G services on commercial basis in India, has deposited the highest Earnest Money Deposit of Rs 6,500 crore and has got the highest eligibility point allocated of 44,506.

The India government is trying to sell 2,354.55 MHz of spectrum. Based on the reserve price, the total value of the spectrum is Rs 5.66 lakh crore. All the recent telecom analyst reports indicate that telecom operators will be buying spectrum worth $10 billion to $15 billion during the next month’s spectrum auction.

The 2,300-plus MHz of airwaves on the block for telecom operators is in seven bands — 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz and 2,500 MHz — as against 470.75 MHz in the previous round, which is set to fetch the exchequer $17 billion during its tenure.

The timetable of the auction has put the mock auction dates on September 26 and 27 and the start of actual auction from October 1.

The government has decided to allot the right to the spectrum won through auction for 20 years.

The operators will have the choice of both upfront and instalments payment options. The service providers who win airwaves below 1 GHz bandwidth will have to pay 25 percent upfront, and for those winning above that the upfront payment will be 50 percent.

One new bidding-friendly measure the government has adopted this year is that spectrum won will be assigned within 30 days from the date of upfront payment. Interest on deferred payment, linked to base rate, will be 9.3 per cent this year against 10 per cent in 2015.

For the successful bidder, the lock-in period of equity in the company has been reduced to one year instead of the earlier stipulation of a minimum period of three years or completion of roll out obligation, whichever is later, IANS reports.