5G spectrum sale ends, Govt nets over Rs 1.5 lakh crore, Jio top bidder

India's mega 5G spectrum auction ended on Monday after receiving record bids worth over Rs 1.5 lakh crore in 40 rounds spanning across seven days, which saw billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio emerging as the top bidder to consolidate its leadership position. Day six of the 5G spectrum auction on Sunday saw an incremental increase in the bidding figure after 37 rounds, with bids worth Rs 1,50,130 crore. According to industry analysts, Reliance Jio has placed bids for more than Rs 84,500 crore, while Airtel's bids are worth more than Rs 46,500 crore.Fifth Generation or 5G would enable solutions such as e-health, connected vehicles, more-immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming among others.

Vodafone Idea has placed bids of around Rs 18,500 crore, while a unit of Adani Enterprises has bids of around Rs 5,000 crore. Jio and Airtel were fiercely engaged in intense bidding in Uttar Pradesh East circle for the 1800MHz band. New entrant Adani group is said to have bought 26 Mhz spectrum for setting up a private telecom network. According to information, the government had put on offer spectrum in 10 bands but received no bids for airwaves in 600 MHz, 800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands. About two-thirds of the bids were for the 5G bands (3300 Mhz and 26 GHz), while more than a quarter of the demand came in the 700 Mhz band - a band that had gone unsold in the previous two auctions (2016 and 2021).