Spectrum auction worth Rs 96238 crore begins Jio Airtel Vi will compete

Telecom News: The central government announced on Tuesday that the auction of spectrum worth Rs 96,238.45 crore for telecom services has started. The Department of Telecommunications has said that spectrum of 10,522.35 MHz of different bands will be auctioned. Its reserve price has been kept at Rs 96,238.45 crore. In this auction, bids will be placed for 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz bands. The auction process has started at 10 am.

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Idea (Vi) and Reliance Jio Infocomm (Jio) will participate in it. The reserve price of the 1800 MHz band has been kept at Rs 21,752.40 crore. At the same time, the reserve price of the 800 MHz band has been kept at Rs 21,341.25 crore.

The ministry has said that this is in line with the government’s commitment to provide good quality telecom services to all citizens at affordable rates. The spectrum process was started by the Department of Telecommunications on March 8.
The spectrum will be allotted for 20 years. The winning companies will have to pay for it in 20 installments over the next 20 years. However, during this period, the companies will have to pay an interest of 8.65 percent on NPV.

The ministry has said that any company can surrender the spectrum purchased in the auction after at least 10 years. Also, no spectrum usage charge (SUC) will be taken from the companies.