Spectrum auction bid dips again, reaches Rs 101,423 crore

The provisional bid during the ongoing spectrum auction decreased to Rs 101,423 crore on Friday from Rs 102,057 crore from Thursday.

The NDA government has budgeted for Rs 43,161.72 crore from auctions of spectrum during the current fiscal while the reserve price for the entire spectrum on offer in the four bands, across India, was around Rs 80,000 crore, IANS reported.

The maximum bids of 78 were received for Tamil Nadu circle with a winning amount of Rs 45 crore per block in the 1800 MHz band. However, this circle saw 17 less bids.

The second highest bids of 75 were received for Punjab circle with a winning amount of Rs 72.15 crore per block in the 900 MHz band. This circle also saw three less bids.

African smartphone user image by pri .org

The eight telecom service providers participating in the auctions are Reliance Communications, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Tata Teleservices, Uninor, Idea Cellular and Aircel.

They have submitted earnest money of Rs 20,435 crore, which is two and a half times what had been called for.

The government is in the process of selling spectrum is 103.75 MHz in 800 MHz band, 177.8 MHz in 900 MHz band and 99.2 MHz in 1,800 MHz band for second generation (2G) telephony and 5 MHz in the 2,100 MHz band for third generation (3G) telephony.

The reserve price is Rs 3,423 crore per MHz for 800 MHz frequency, Rs 3,399 crore for 900 MHz band, Rs 1,425 crore for 1,800 MHz band and Rs 3,511 crore per megahertz for the frequency for 3G spectrum.

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