Govt receives bids worth ₹1,49,855 crore in 5G spectrum auction- Jio, Airtel most aggressive

The auction for the 5G spectrum concluded on Friday with the government receiving bids worth ₹1,49,855 crore after 23 rounds of bidding.

Seven rounds of bidding were conducted on Friday, the final day of the auction.

According to Union Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, the value of total bids received after 23rd round of the auction stood at ₹1,49,855 crore.

The auction for the 5G spectrum was conducted over four days. Friday was the fourth and the final day of the bidding.

At the end of the 3rd day of the bidding on Thursday, the total value of the bids stood at ₹1,49,623 crore.

On the opening day of the auction on Tuesday, bids worth ₹1.45 lakh crore were received. Four rounds of spectrum bidding were done on the first day.

Wednesday saw five rounds of the auction, taking the total rounds to nine.

On the third day of the auction on Thursday, another seven rounds of auction were conducted taking the number to 16.

The fourth day of the auction started with the 17th round.

At the end of the first day, the bid value stood at ₹1.45 lakh crore. It rose to ₹1,49,454 crore on the second day and further to ₹1,49,623 crore at the end of the third day.

Four firms are in the fray for the 5G auction. These firms are - Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, Bharti Airtel Limited, Vodafone Idea Limited and Adani Data Networks Limited.

Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has been the most aggressive in the bids followed by Sunil Bharti Mittal-led Bharti Airtel.

This is evident from the earnest money deposit (EMD) done by the firms. Put together the four companies have deposited ₹21,800 crore as EMD.

More than half of this amount is by Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is the largest telecom operator in India. Reliance Jio Infocomm has put in ₹14,000 crore as EMD followed by Bharti Airtel Limited at ₹5,500 crore.

Vodafone Idea Limited has deposited ₹2,200 crore as EMD for the 5G auction while EMD amount of Adani Data Networks stands at ₹100 crore.

EMD amounts give a broad indication of the company's plan for picking up the spectrum in an auction. The EMD determines the eligibility points, through which telcos target a specific amount of spectrum in a given circle.

With its EMD at ₹14,000 crore, the eligibility points assigned to Reliance Jio Infocomm for the auction stand at 1,59,830, DoT data showed. Eligibility points allocated to Bharti Airtel stand at 66,330 and for Vodafone Idea Limited it stands at 29,370. The eligibility points allocated to Adani Data Networks Ltd are the lowest at 1,650.