Seven Finalists For India’s Biggest Telecom Spectrum Auction
Of the seven finalists, four are allowed to bid on all bands across all circles.
Bharti Airtel Ltd, Idea Cellular Ltd., Vodafone India Ltd., Aircel Ltd., Tata Teleservices Ltd., Reliance Communications Ltd. and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. have emerged as final bidders for the upcoming spectrum auction, The Department of Telecommunication said on Friday.
The spectrum auction which will start on October 1, 2016 will be the biggest in India so far. The government is looking to raise nearly Rs 5.67 lakh crore through the auction.
Of the seven finalists, four are allowed to bid on all bands across all circles. Airtel, Idea, Vodafone and Reliance Jio are allowed to bid on all 22 circles and across all seven bands which are up for auction, the statement said.
Reliance Communications and Aircel will bid separately in the forthcoming auctions. The former is allowed to bid for all bands across all circles except for North East and Assam.
Aircel can only bid for 900 and 1,800 MHz (megahertz) bands across all circles. Additionally, it can only bid for the 2,300 MHz in Andhra Pradesh and for the 2100 MHz in only West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh (East), Tamil Nadu, Punjab, Odisha, North-East, Kolkata, Kerala, Karnataka, Jammu & Kashmir, Bihar, Assam & Andhra Pradesh.
Tata Teleservices can bid for all bands across Mumbai and Maharashtra. It cannot bid for the 800 MHz, 900 MHz and 1,800 MHz bands in Assam and North-East. In the Delhi circle, it is not allowed to bid on the 1800 MHz band. TTSL is allowed to bid for 2,100 MHz band in Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Mumbai, Punjab, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh (West). It can also bid for 700 MHz, 2,300 MHz and 2,500 MHz in Mumbai and Maharashtra.