The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) released a report for Day 6 of bidding for the airwaves in the spectrum auction 2022. 5G spectrum is necessary for the telcos to rollout 5G services in India later this year. The auction, which began on July 26, 2022, has now reached its seventh day of bidding. Telcos will meet again today to bid for airwaves. A total of 37 clock rounds have been completed. On the sixth day, which was on July 31, 2022, seven clock rounds of bidding took place.
The cumulative bid total has surpassed Rs 1.50 lakh crore mark. The focus on day six was again UP (Uttar Pradesh) East, where the telcos want the 1800 MHz spectrum. In a specific number, telcos have bid for Rs 1,50,130 crore. On Monday morning, clock round 38 will begin where the telcos will go for the airwaves once again.
Airtel needs more airwaves in the 1800 MHz band in UP East. For Airtel, some of its 900 MHz airwaves will expire in the circle in 2024. Jio is going pretty hard in this spectrum auction again as the telco has reportedly acquired 700 MHz airwaves (10 MHz quantity PAN-India). The government will be happy with this response from the telcos as it is the one that will be earning all this bid amount. The most amount of money so far has been spent on the mid-band spectrum by the telcos. The mid-band airwaves will be very crucial for the operators in rolling out 5G.
