The government on Monday said it had garnered Rs 77,146 crore on the opening day of the 4G spectrum auction — over 71% higher than what it had expected, with Reliance Jio Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea mainly bidding to renew airwave permits expiring from July.
In early trade on the BSE, Airtel, Vi and RIL’s shares up 0.6%, 0.5% and 0.7% at Rs535.65, Rs11.12 and Rs2116, respectively.
This, even as the government’s takings on Day 1 was less than the Rs 3.92 lakh-crore of spectrum across seven bands put on sale. This was mainly because, as widely expected, the 700 MHZ band – worth nearly Rs2 lakh crore–went unsold due to its high base price despite a 43% cut from 2016 when it had also found no takers.
Top industry sector executives expect the sale to close Tuesday as activity levels were already at 90% on Monday.
The 2300 MHz band saw the most interest on Day 1, with 89% of the bandwidth on offer being taken up, with interest likely from Jio and Airtel, while around 65% of the 800 MHz band on offer was sold. Jio needed to renew its permits in 18 circles in this band to be able continue to offer services without disruption, analysts said.
Communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said on Monday that if 700 Mhz and 2500 Mhz bands are excluded, the Day 1 bidding represented 60% of the spectrum put to auction. Telecom secretary Anshu Prakash, in turn, had said the government would get an upfront payment of Rs12,000-13,000 crore in FY21 and a similar amount in FY22.
