Spectrum auction reserve price pegged at Rs 96,238 crore

New Delhi, June 25

The government will conduct an e-auction of Spectrum — used phone and internet communication — on Tuesday. The total quantum of spectrum being auctioned is 10,522.35 MHz in various bands valuing Rs 96,238.45 crore at reserve prices, the Ministry of Communication said on Tuesday.

The Spectrum e-auction started at 10 am on Tuesday with three bidders — Bharti Airtel Limited, Vodafone Idea Ltd and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd.

A government spokesperson said on Tuesday that the auction would augment existing telecom services and maintain continuity of services.

“This is in line with government’s commitment to facilitate affordable, state-of-art high quality telecom services to all the citizens,” the Ministry of Communication said.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had initiated the Spectrum Auction and Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) was issued on March 8 this year.

As per the Ministry of Communications, the spectrum bands which will go up for bidding in the upcoming auction include – 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz.

Spectrum will be assigned for a period of twenty (20) years and successful bidders will be allowed to make payment in 20 equal annual instalments.

Spectrum acquired through this auction can be surrendered after a minimum period of ten years. There will be no Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) for Spectrum acquired in this auction.

It is not required by the successful bidder to submit a Financial Bank Guarantee (FBG) and Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG).