Spectrum Auction: Govt received additional Rs 4,100 crore bids on day 3

As the third day of Spectrum auction concluded, after 17 rounds of auction bids, the government received the bids worth Rs 60,969 crore, Aseem Manchanda reported.

Till evening, the spectrum auction had received bids worth Rs 59,981, around Rs 3,189 crore more than Monday's auction, which concluded with bids worth Rs 56,792 crore. This means, the government has received bids worth Rs 4,177 crore today

Like previous two days of auctions, on third day too, 700 Mhz and 900 Mhz bands remained without bidders, while a lot of activity was seen in 2100 MHz, 2300Mhz and 2500 Mhz bands and most of the action is seen in 1800 Mhz band.

The biggest ever spectrum auction in India had kicked off on Saturday, 1 October 2016. On the first day of auction, the government had got bids worth Rs 55,000 crore. 

Seven telecom companies have applied for this spectrum auction, and together have brought in bids of around Rs 14,563 crore.

The government which will be auctioning the largest ever spectrum 2,354 MHz across seven bands -  700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz and 2300 Mhz.  The radiowaves can be used for 2G, 3G and high-speed 4G mobile services.

Out of this, the 700 MHz spectrum band would be the first time be offered in the auction. For this band a firm will need to shell out a minimum of Rs 57,425 crore. 

This spectrum auction is expected to fetch bids worth Rs 5.63 lakh crore. 

Reliance Jio, Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications and Aircel are in the fray for the spectrum auction.