Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Limited (Vi) have submitted their application to bid for the upcoming spectrum auction, which is scheduled to start from June 6, 2024.
The government will auction eight spectrum bands for mobile phone services at a base price of about Rs 963.17 billion. All the available spectrum in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz, and 26 GHz bands are part of the auction.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has received three applications for the auction from the three private telcos by the deadline for applying, and no new company has applied this time. However, in the last auction held in 2022, an Adani group unit was the surprise bidder.
The spectrum will be assigned for 20 years and successful bidders will be allowed to make payments in 20 equal annual instalments. DoT has also provided an option to surrender the spectrum acquired through the upcoming auction after a minimum period of 10 years. Additionally, spectrum bidders are not required to submit any financial bank guarantees (FBG) and performance bank guarantees (PBG). Also, airwaves bought in the auction will not attract any spectrum usage charges (SUC) in keeping with the telecom reforms initiated in September 2021.
Further, DoT will publish ownership details of the applicants on May 10, 2024. The last date for withdrawal of applications is May 17, 2024 and the final list of bidders is scheduled to be declared on May 20, 2024.
Furthermore, the successful bidders have to deposit the amount to DoT within 10 calendar days from the issuance of demand notice by DoT. In addition, DoT will issue a frequency assignment letter specifying the frequencies to the successful bidder within 30 calendar days from the date of receipt of payment.
