The highly-anticipated auction for the 5G telecom spectrum commenced on Tuesday, with four giants bidding for 72GHz of radiowaves that is worth Rs 4.3 lakh crore. Adani Enterprises, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vi, formerly known as Vodafone Idea, are participating in the bidding process.
About the process of 5G auction
The four telecom giants, ahead of the auction, had deposited an Earnest Money Deposit (EDM), a certain amount indicating their plans to purchase 5G radio waves.
The smallest share of EDM comes from Gautam Adani's unit, while the highest deposit comes from Reliance Jio, securing Jio's purchasing capabilities among other buyers.
Adani Enterprise is looking to buy the bare minimum spectrum in order to set up a base private network that might be used at data centres or airports.
While Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio has contributed an EMD of Rs 14,000 crore, the Adani unit has only contributed Rs 100 crore. Bharti Airtel, which is helmed by Sunil Mittal, invested Rs 5,500 crore as EMD, compared to Rs 2,200 crore for Vodafone Idea.
Several frequency bands, including 600MHz, 700MHz, 800MHz, 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2300MHz, 3300MHz, and 26GHz, totaling 72GHz, will be auctioned off, according to the government.
In its initial phase of the 5G auction, the companies will bid for low and mid-tier 5G bands. The auction of higher-yet-more-expensive 5G radio waves will take place later.
5G roll out in India
The earlier set date for the 5G roll out in August won't be possible since the bidding started late. People can expect Adani, Reliance, Airtel, or Vi to start testing 5G commercially in the month of September or October.
