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According to sources, the auction process started smoothly today morning and three rounds of bidding happened during the first half of the day.
However, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is yet to decide on whether results of the daily bidding will be announced by the end of the day or not following a Supreme Court order asking government not to finalise results without their permission. Though, SC gave a go-ahead for the auction process. The next hearing in the SC is scheduled for March 26.
It's a do or die situation for many telcos whose licenses are coming up for renewal towards the end of this year. Bharti Airtel's licenses in six circles, Vodafone India in seven circles, Idea Cellular in nine and Reliance Telecom (a unit of Reliance Communications) in seven circles are coming up for renewal in 2015-16.
Other companies who are participating in the auction include Reliance Jio, Tata Teleservices, Uninor and Aircel. All the telcos together have submitted an earnest money of Rs 20,435 crore.
Kolkata-based mjunction services, which is the auctioneer for the spectrum auction in 800, 900, 1800 and 2100 MHz band, is a 50:50 venture by Steel Authority of India and TATA Steel. The auction will take place between 9 a.m to 7.30 p.m, from Monday to Saturday except holidays.
The government plans to sell 380.75 MHz of spectrum in three bands - the premium 900 MHz band, 1800 MHz and 800 MHz, besides 5 Mhz in the 2100 Mhz band, which is used for 3G services, across 17 out of 22 circles.
The reserve price approved is Rs 3,646 crore pan-India per Mhz in 800 MHz, Rs 3,980 crore for 900 Mhz band pan-India, and Rs 2,191 crore pan-India in 1,800 Mhz band and Rs 3,705 crore per Mhz for 2100 Mhz. As per estimates, the auction will give reveneus translate into around Rs 82,000 crore, but the government expects the target to cross Rs 100,000 crore.
