Despite strong market rumor and experts’ forecast Mukesh Ambani owned Reliance Industries’ telecom arm Reliance Jio Infocomm skipped 900MHz spectrum and acquired spectrum in 1800 MHz in 14 circles (Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Kerala, Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharastra, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Andra Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam and North East) only in the recently concluded auction.

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Reliance Jio, formerly Infotel Broadband won pan India 20MHz spectrum in 2.3GHz band in 2010. In 2012 they bought unified spectrum license, which indicated that the company will jump into voice services too. To confirm their participation in voice market they also joined the auction for 900MHz and 1800MHz band airwaves. But why didn’t they pick up 900MHz band?

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Incumbents Squeezed up to Grab 900MHz airwaves
In the metro circles, Airtel and Vodafone have spectrum in 900MHz, license of which is going to be expire by November 2014. These operators, if failed to retain this airwave, would have to go for 1800MHz which will increase capital expenditure. With huge money Reliance Jio becomes a major threat to incumbent players. The bidding sees some fierce calls, and it goes from 55 – 110% up from the reserve price.

RJio Saved Money for 700/800MHz
In coming days govt. will auction for 800MHz and 700MHz, which are more efficient than 900MHz. LTE over these bands have stronger ecosystem than LTE over 900MHz. Also Jio’s main target is to offer data. 700/800Mhz will offer better coverage as well as faster data connectivity. So definitely RJio saved money for buying these airwaves.