India hopes to bring in Rs 5.83 trillion from airwaves auction in 2019

India expects to raise as much as Rs 5.83 trillion ($83.8 billion) from its latest round of airwaves auction, even as the carriers battle a brutal tariff war that has eroded their earnings and forced some to exit.

The government plans to sell 8,600 megahertz of telecom airwaves this year across multiple frequency bands, said a telecom ministry official, who did not want to be identified as the information is not public.

Spectrum auctions -- a significant source of revenue for the national exchequer in the past -- are coming at a particularly challenging time for India’s mobile-phone carriers. Once a crowded