The total bid value during the 5G spectrum auction in India touched Rs 149,855 crore ($18.88 billion) on the fourth day today against Rs 149,623 crore during the third day, Rs 149,454 crore on the second day and Rs 145,000 crore on the first day.
There are indications that India’s first 5G spectrum auction will end on Saturday. Operators such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are in the race to buy 5G spectrum. New entrant Adani’s Adani Enterprises is also in the race.
There were 23 rounds of bidding on Friday. The day four started with the 17th round at 10 am and each round was of 45 minutes of bidding. The amount generated on Friday was Rs 232 crore more than on Thursday.
Telecom operators were keen to buy spectrum in the 3300MHz band during the seven rounds of bidding that took place on Friday.
India is selling spectrum in various low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), mid (3300 MHz) and high (26 GHz) frequency bands.
The bid value touched nearly $19 billion against $54 billion worth of airwaves for 72 GHz of radiowaves are available for available for auction.
Jio, which counts global tech giants Facebook and Google among its backers, is expected to be the first carrier to launch 5G services in India.
Adani said in early July that it does not plan to be in the consumer mobility space and instead aims to provide solutions for private 5G networks.
Telecom network suppliers including Nokia and Ericsson are expected to support top mobile network operators for rolling out their 5G.
