The big companies run by worldwide tycoons Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Bharti Mittal and Gautam Adani had bid about Rs 1.45 lakh crore in order to buy the fifth-generation (5G) airwaves on the opening day of India's largest-ever spectrum auction which was held on Tuesday. The Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has pointed out people’s attention towards the response on the very first day of the auction. It had exceeded all the expectations and would surpass the records of 2015, when the revenue collection from auction was stood at Rs 1.09 lakh crore.

HIGHLIGHTS
Big companies bid to buy the fifth-generation airwaves within the auction on Tuesday
The bid has exceeded all the expectations and would surpass the records of 2015
5G services to start rolling out could be by September-October time period

The 700 MHz band which had not seen any takers in the years of 2016 and 2021 auctions had received bids this year. As per the information forwarded by the telecom department, the coveted 700 MHz band had bids worth Rs 39,270 crore which were received on day-one of auction. All of the four applicants— Ambani's Reliance Jio, Mittal's Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Adani group firm who have been 'actively' participating in the auction of the 5G spectrum, have been offering ultra-high speeds (about 10 times quicker than 4G), lag-free connectivity, and they may enable billions of connected devices to share data in real time.

The Telecom Minister had mentioned that the auction has seen a healthy participation and the responses show that the industry had turned from its tough time which was caused by litigation. The bidding and demand that was seen on the first day was more than 80 per cent which was more than government's internal estimates of Rs. 80,000 crore. The minister had truly acknowledged that the response had gone 'far beyond our expectations.'

The expectation for 5G services to start rolling out could be by September-October time period. The target has been set to allocate the spectrum by August 14-15. Though, no bids were received for 800 MHz and 2,300 MHz bands.

Well, to power the ultra-low latency connections, which would permit downloading full-length high-quality video or film to a mobile device within the matter of few seconds (even in crowded areas), fifth generation or 5G would alter solutions like e-health, connected vehicles, a lot of immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming, among others.

The auction which was conducted in 2021 had lasted for two days where Reliance Jio had picked up spectrum value Rs. 57,122.65 crore, Bharti Airtel bid about Rs. 18,699 crore, and Vodafone Idea bought spectrum which was worth Rs. 1,993.40 crore.

Also Read: Spectrum bids will be held this year to help with the deployment of 5G networks .