Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday that the country has submitted bids totaling about $19 billion for 5G spectrum and the process is likely to continue in the next few days. The 5G spectrum auctions resumed today after ₹1,49,967 crore worth of bids were received after 30 rounds so far from players like Jio Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel Jio, rivals Airtel and Vodafone Idea as well as billionaire Gautam Adani’s Adani Enterprises. among candidates for 5G broadcasting.
Vaishnaw said he expects 5G to be rolled out by October 2022, which the government says can provide data speeds about 10 times faster than 4G. Vaishnaw said yesterday that around 71% of the total spectrum placed on the block has been provisionally sold, terming it a “good response”. Seven rounds of bidding took place on Friday and ₹231.6 crore was recorded sequentially. A total of 23 bidding rounds took place until Friday.
After a flying start on Tuesday, with players pouring in ₹1.45 crore on the first day, the numbers gradually increased over Wednesday, Thursday and Friday as Jio and Airtel competed intensely for the 1800 MHz band in the UP East circle. In total, there is at least ₹4.3 crore worth of radio waves on the block of 72 GHz (gigahertz). The auction is for spectrum in various low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz), medium (3300 MHz) and high (26 GHz) frequency bands.
