Spectrum Auction Bids Drop to Rs. 1,05,000 Crores at End of Day 17

The government's telecom spectrum auction kitty on Monday decreased to Rs 1.05 lakh crores with provisional allocation of 88 percent airwaves at the end of day 17.

The amount of bids received on Saturday stood at Rs 1.07 lakh crores.

"At the end of 104th round, about 88 percent of the spectrum has been provisionally allocated to bidders. The provisional amount committed by bidders is over Rs 1,05,000 crores," the Department of Telecom said.

According to sources, the premium 900MHz continued to witness bidding for the circles of Rajasthan, UP East and West and Assam circle also saw bidding in the band.

Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, North East and UP East saw bidding in 800MHz band whereas UP East and West also saw activity in 1800MHz band.

Brisk bidding was seen on Monday with activity requirement set at 100 percent and 7 rounds were completed.

"There is robust bidding going on in 900MHz and 800MHz bands," it said.

The government had got about Rs 1.06 lakh crores from the sale of 3G and BWA spectrum in 2010. In the auction held last year, the government netted Rs 62,162 crores.

The auction will continue on Tuesday as there is still some spectrum left which is yet to be sold.

Across all bands, 9-10 telecom circles witnessed activity.

Care Ratings in a report has said that "the consumers will have to bear the brunt of tariff hikes which will become inevitable for the operators to realise returns on these huge investments".

The government is not disclosing the names of the successful bidders as yet as a case is pending before the Supreme Court. The next hearing on the case is on March 26.

Incumbents Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are locked with Reliance Jio to protect their spectrum they need to carry voice and data in the world's second-biggest smartphone market. In all, eight bidders are in the fray.

A total of 380.75MHz of spectrum is on offer in 900MHz, 1800MHz and 800MHz bands, while 5MHz is up for bidding in the 1800MHz band across 17 out of 22 telecom areas or circles in the country.