The government has received bids worth Rs 1,50,130 crores in the 5G spectrum auction on Sunday and bidding will continue on Monday also as operators continue to battle for 1800 MHz waves in Uttar Pradesh (East).
Seven rounds of bidding took place on Sunday, said the Department of Telecom officials here. Demand in the Uttar Pradesh East circle was the reason for increase in proceeds. Jio and Airtel engaged in intense bidding in UP East circle for 1800 MHz band. The auction started on July 26.
Most of the telecom service providers requested the government to continue the auction on Monday also as there are only a few circles left. The competition is high between Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. Even Vodafone Idea and a unit belonging to Adani Enterprises are in the race to bid for 5G spectrum, which offers speeds about 10 times faster than 4G, lag-free connectivity, and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time.
In all, 72 GHz (gigahertz) of radiowaves worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore is on the block. The auction is being held for spectrum in various low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz), mid (3300 MHz) and high (26 GHz) frequency bands.