Reliance Jio has deposited the highest amount of Rs 14,000 crore as earnest money deposit (EMD) for the upcoming spectrum auctions in India, followed by Bharti Airtel with Rs 5,500 crore, Vodafone Idea with Rs 2,200 crore, and Adani Enterprises with Rs 100 crore as EMD.
India aims to sell spectrum in the 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHZ, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz, and 26 GHz bands. India’s spectrum auction will start on July 26. A total of 72 GHz (gigahertz) of spectrum, worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore, will be put on the block during the auction.
Reliance Jio has submitted three times the earnest money deposit (EMD) in comparison to its nearest competitor Bharti Airtel.
Reliance Jio’s EMD of Rs 14,000 crore indicates that the Mukesh Ambani promoted telecoms operator is willing to shell out Rs 1.27 lakh crore during the upcoming auctions. Reliance Jio may be focusing more on building 5G networks.
Sunil Mittal promoted Bharti Airtel’s expected outflow will be Rs 48,000 crore considering the EMD of Rs 5,500 crore.
Vodafone Idea (Vi) is likely to buy spectrum worth Rs 20,000 crore as per the EMD of Rs 2,000 crore submitted by the operator.
Adani, which was looking to set up private networks at its existing facilities, will be putting a bid of Rs 600 crore on the basis of their token EMD of Rs 100 crore.
