No withdrawal, eight telcos to fight for spectrum in Feb auction

No change in earnest money that indicates expected scale of bidding by a company

The Government’s decision to fix the much-debated issue of spectrum usage charge (SUC) at 5% of adjusted gross revenue of telcom operators, without changing the levy for the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum holders, before the upcoming auction of spectrum seem to have given booster to confidence of the telecom operators.

None of the eight telecom operators, who have submitted applications expressing interest to bid in the auction that starts 3 February, has withdraw bid application.

According to the final bidders list published by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), on Wednesday, there is no change in the list of prospective bidders, and the earnest money that they have deposited. Earnest money indicates expected scale of bidding by a company.

Tuesday was the last date of withdrawing applications.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Idea Cellular, Telewings (Uninor), Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices and Aircel will bid for spectrum in the upcoming auction. The DoT will auction about 403MHz of spectrum in 1800MHz band and 46MHz in 900MHz band.

Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel had, on Tuesday, written to DoT secretary intending to reduce its earnest money deposit, indicating that it could reduce the scale of bidding.

Bharti Airtel tops the list of earnest money deposits with Rs 3,700.25 crore, followed by Vodafone India (Rs 2,800 crore), Reliance Jio Infocomm (Rs 2,596.25 crore, Idea Cellular (Rs 1,567.50 crore, Telewings (Rs 330 crore, Tata Teleservices (Rs 267 crore), Reliance Communications (Rs 198.75 crore) and Aircel (Rs 100 crore).

Meanwhile, Vodafone will not be permitted to bid for seven circles —Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, North East and Orissa, while Reliance Communications will not be able to bid for eight circles -- Assam, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Kolkata, Madhya Pradesh, North East, Orissa and West Bengal, according to DoT.

Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Telewings Communications are eligible to bid for 22 circles across the country, while Tata Teleservices will not be permitted to bid for Delhi circle.