Spectrum auctions may be a no-show: Telcos expected to do minimum buying, leaving about 60% spectrum unsold

The spectrum auctions which the government plans to hold in March are likely to see operators bidding conservatively, which means that apart from renewing what is expiring, they will just fill the gaps in their portfolio to leverage their existing spectrum holding to the maximum. Also, none of the operators are expected to bid for the premium 4G spectrum in the 700 Mhz band because of the high reserve price. This means that for the second time — the first time this band was put up for auction was in 2016 — there would be no takers for this band due to prohibitively high price.

Reliance Jio needs to renew the biggest chunk of its spectrum — its 81.25 Mhz in 800 Mhz band which is used for providing 4G services, is expiring later this year. So it is sure to bid for enough spectrum in this band as it needs to have 10 MHz in every circle.