Reliance Industries’ Jio emerged as the biggest spender in India’s $19 billion 5G spectrum auction on Monday.
Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Jio will be buying airwaves worth $11 billion to scale up its wireless network across the world’s no.2 mobile market, Reuters news report said.
The country’s telecoms minister said that companies bought 71 percent of a total 72 GHz spectrum for sale in India’s 5G auction, which concluded on Monday and also saw participation from Jio rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, as well as a unit of Adani Enterprises.
Airtel won spectrum worth $5.4 billion.
Vodafone won spectrum worth $2.4 billion.
Adani purchased airwaves worth nearly $27 million. Adani aims to opt for 5G private network services.
India’s government aims to begin the rollout of 5G – which it says can provide data speeds about 10 times faster than 4G – by October this year.
Globally, the next generation network is seen as vital for emerging technologies like self-driving cars and artificial intelligence.
