Country’s biggest ever spectrum auction kicks off today

India’s biggest spectrum sale kicks off today on the same day as Amazon India kick starts its own festival bonanza for the numero uno position in the ecommerce space. However, the biggest of the auction battle the country has ever seen would be played in the spectrum room.

It is the biggest ever spectrum auction where mobile airwaves worth Rs 5.63 lakh crore are up for grabs for all the interested telecom players. This also holds importance as government of India for the first time ever has made spectrum available in all the possible frequency bands- 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz, 2100 Mhz and 2300 Mhz . Government for the first time will auction premium airwaves in the 700Mhz band.

This auction would be the last chance for all the incumbent players to beef up their spectrum supplies for the battle that lies ahead with them to take on biggies like Reliance Jio for the next generation telecommunication services.

It is widely expected that Jio and Airtel would spend in excess of USD 1 billion in the current auction, whereas other telecom major Vodafone and Idea may outstrip Jio and Airtel by spending more than double of that amount in order to boost up their spectrum presence in all the circles.

Other smaller players like RCom-Aircel, Tata Teleservices are also in the fray.

Goldman Sachs pegs total proceeds from the auction to cross USD 7 billion.