The government will hold the spectrum auction on June 25 2024 to 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 Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has initiated the Spectrum Auction and Notice Inviting Applications (NIA) was issued on March 8, 2024. The Ministry of Communications announced that the following spectrum bands will go up for bidding in the upcoming auction – 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz.
Total quantum of spectrum being auctioned is 10,522.35 MHz in various bands valuing Rs 96,238.45 Crores at reserve prices.
The auction will see participation from three bidders: M/s Bharti Airtel Limited, M/s Vodafone Idea Ltd, and M/s Reliance Jio Infocomm. Process of auction: The auction shall be a Simultaneous Multiple Round Ascending (SMRA) e-auction.
Further, 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, duly protecting the NPV at the interest rate of 8.65%.
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. Also, it is not required by the successful bidder to submit a Financial Bank Guarantee (FBG) and Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG).
Mock Auctions were conducted on June 3, June 13 and June 14 this year to familiarise the bidders with e-Auction platform. Subsequently, Auction Catalogue was published on June 24 2024 to ensure there is no inaccuracy in the data of bidders.