Spectrum auction ends: Govt to get Rs 28,872 cr upfront, Idea makes highest winning bid

Spectrum auction came to an end yesterday with the Indian government set to get nearly Rs 1,10,000 crore from the auction process.

For all the spectrum that was bid by telecom companies, Idea will pay the highest amount of  Rs 30,306 crore for spectrum; Bharti Airtel will shell out Rs 29,301 crore and Vodafone Rs 25,959 crore.

Reliance Jio will pay Rs 10,077 crore; Tata Tele (Rs 7,851 crore); Reliance Communication (Rs 4,299 crore); Aircel (Rs 2,250 crore), Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said today. So victorious bidders will pay a quarter to a third of the winning price within 10 days, and the rest in 10 annual installments beginning 2017.

Together with market leaders Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Group Plc’s India unit, the top three players paid Rs 85575 crore, or about 78 percent of the total airwaves sold.

The government expects to receive about Rs 28872 crore ($4.61 billion) in initial payments, which winning bidders have to make by April 4.

“Today spectrum auction has concluded at Rs 1,09,874 crore. This is highest ever in history of India. The spectrum auction conducted in 2010 brought about Rs 1,06,000 crore which included Rs 30,000 crore payment from BSNL and MTNL. This time all amount is non-BSNL, non-MTNL money,” Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said yesterday.

The 800 Mhz spectrum worth Rs 9,710 crore at base price got sold at premium price of Rs 17,158.79 crore.

The 3G spectrum and 1800 Mhz spectrum contributed Rs 10,115.41 crore and Rs 9,636.17 crore respectively against their value of Rs 9,620 crore and Rs 8,292.4 crore.

With inputs from Agencies