Centre Got Rs 11,300 Crores from India's Second Spectrum Sale

New Delhi: Witnessing a low demand from telecom operators, the Centre is likely to have garnered over Rs 11,300 crore from India’s second spectrum sale in selling airwaves across the bands, which ended in two days after seven rounds on Wednesday noon. In this auction of radio waves that carry voice and data signals for mobile phones, Bharti Airtel is learnt to have emerged as the top buyer of airwaves followed by Vodafone-Idea (Vi) and Reliance Jio.

As per the sources privy to development, the auction, where a total of 10 GHz of spectrum ranging between 800 MHz to 26 GHz was offered, got total bids worth Rs 11,340 crore. “There were a total of seven rounds in two days with spectrum sold around 141-150 MHz. Telecom giant Bharti Airtel emerged as the top bidder, which may have bought spectrum worth around Rs 9,000 crore, while Vi and Reliance Jio placed their bids worth approximately Rs 1200-1500 crore and Rs 1000 crore respectively,” the sources said.

However, an official statement issued by telcos confirmed that India’s spectrum auctions sold a total of 141.4 MHz radio waves worth Rs 11,340.78 crore, with Bharti Airtel emerging as the top buyer with airwaves worth Rs 6,856.76 crore. “Reliance Jio bagged spectrum worth Rs 973.62 crore, while Vi (Vodafone Idea Ltd) bid for spectrum valued at about Rs 3,510.4 crore,” the statement said.

The government on Tuesday offered auctions of radio waves in the bands of -- 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz. “Five rounds of bidding happened on the opening day on June 25, but Wednesday did not see much action, leading to officials declaring the end of the auction at around 11.30 am,” the sources added.

Bharti Airtel said that the company has bought 97-MHz radio frequency, around 60 per cent of total airwaves sold, for Rs 6,857 crore in the fresh auction that concluded on Wednesday. “Additionally Bharti Hexacom, a subsidiary of the telecom firm, has acquired 15 MHz with an outlay of Rs 1,001 crore, Bharti Airtel,” the company said.

“Airtel continues to judiciously acquire the right amount of spectrum to deliver the best possible experience to our customers. In this auction, we have bolstered our sub-giga hertz and mid-band holding, which will significantly improve our coverage especially indoor,” Bharti Airtel managing director and CEO Gopal Vittal said.

During the last auction in 2022, which turned out to be a seven-day affair, a record over Rs 1.5 lakh crore worth of 5G telecom spectrum was sold, with billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio emerging as the top bidder, cornering nearly half of all the airwaves worth Rs 88,078 crore. At that time, telecom tycoon Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel also made a successful bid of Rs 43,084 crore, while Vodafone Idea bought spectrum for Rs 18,799 crore.