Jio top bidder as 5G spectrum sale closes

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd emerged as the top buyer in a government auction of airwaves on Monday, spending ₹88,078 crore, more than double that of second-placed Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Ambani’s purchases helped the government net a record ₹1.5 trillion by selling 51,236MHz of spectrum in the auction that lasted a week. About 71% of the 72,098MHz airwaves on sale, including 5G spectrum, were picked up by wireless operators, with the highest ₹80,590 crore coming from the sale of spectrum in the 3.3GHz band. The sale of airwaves in the 700MHz, 26GHz and 1,800MHz bands contributed ₹39,270 crore, ₹14,709 crore and ₹10,376 crore, respectively.

“We understand that the spectrum purchased is good enough for covering the entire country. So, there’s good reason to believe that in the coming two to three years, we’ll have very good coverage of 5G in the entire country,” telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters on Monday.