At the end of day two, the government has received bids worth over Rs 1.49 lakh crore from the auction of the 5G spectrum, Union Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Wednesday.
The auction will continue for the third day on Thursday.
"5G auction is continuing even today and it is going to continue tomorrow also. At the end of the 9th round, we have grossed about Rs 1,49,454 crores," Vaishnaw said at a media briefing.
On the opening day of the auction on Tuesday, bids worth Rs 1.45 lakh crore were received. Four rounds of spectrum bidding were done on the first day.
Wednesday saw another five rounds of the auction, taking the total rounds to nine.
Giving updates about the second day of the auction, Vaishnaw said, "700 MHz has seen a good response, it has been sold this time. Good response in other low and mid bands as well."
The 700 MHz band is ideal for coverage in high-density areas and deep data networks. It will help in enhancing indoor coverage.
Four firms are in the fray for the 5G auction. These firms are - Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited, Bharti Airtel Limited, Vodafone Idea Limited and Adani Data Networks Limited.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio has been the most aggressive in the bids followed by Sunil Bharti Mittal-led Bharti Airtel.
This is evident from the earnest money deposit (EMD) done by the firms. Put together the four companies have deposited Rs 21,800 crore as EMD.
More than half of this amount is by Reliance Jio Infocomm, which is the largest telecom operator in India. Reliance Jio Infocomm has put in Rs 14,000 crore as EMD followed by Bharti Airtel Limited at Rs 5,500 crore.
Vodafone Idea Limited has deposited Rs 2,200 crore as EMD for the 5G auction while EMD amount of Adani Data Networks stands at Rs 100 crore.
EMD amounts give a broad indication of the company's plan for picking up the spectrum in an auction. The EMD determines the eligibility points, through which telcos target a specific amount of spectrum in a given circle.
With its EMD at Rs 14,000 crore, the eligibility points assigned to Reliance Jio Infocomm for the auction stand at 1,59,830, DoT data showed. Eligibility points allocated to Bharti Airtel stand at 66,330 and for Vodafone Idea Limited it stands at 29,370. The eligibility points allocated to Adani Data Networks Ltd are the lowest at 1,650.
( With inputs from ANI )
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