The auction process completed 6 rounds of bidding bringing the total up to 86 rounds since the start of the auctions. Brisk bidding was seen on the 14th day of bidding, with activity requirement set at 100 percent. There was robust bidding in 1800MHz and 800MHz bands," the Department of Telecom (DoT) said in a statement. Sources said five circles in 800 MHz, two circles in 1800 MHz and one circle in 900 MHz witnessed bidding today.
At the end of round 86, there was surplus demand for 80MHz spectrum in Delhi, Maharashtra and North East circles. There was no excess demand in 900, 1800, 2100 MHz bands in any of the circles. The total bid amount has increased to 1.09 Lakh Crore and 89% of the total spectrum has been provisionally allocated to winning operators.
Industry sources believe that Vodafone is giving Reliance Jio a taste of their own medicine by bidding fiercely for 800MHz band to increase the bid price so as to increase Jio’s cash outflow just like it has done with the incumbents in the 900MHz band by pushing up the bid prices. Note that unlike the 900, 1800 and 2100MHz bands the minimum amount of spectrum that needs to be bid for by a new entrant is not 5MHz for the 800MHz band. In the 800MHz band the block size is 1.25MHz and the minimum number of blocks required to be bid for by a new entrant is 4 in circles where 4 or more blocks are available, 3 in circles where 3 are available or 2 in circles where only 2 blocks are available. Operators with existing 800MHz spectrum in a circle can bid for a minimum of 1 block.
