New Delhi:
The auction of 5G spectrum for ultra-fast internet services entered its fourth day on Friday after collecting bids worth Rs 1,49,623 crore in 16 bidding rounds conducted so far.
Due to the high interest in spectrum in the 1800 MHz band in the Uttar Pradesh East circle, Jio and Airtel were engaged in intense bidding on Wednesday and Thursday, keeping the pace and the auction timelines moving further than initially expected.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and a unit of billionaire Gautam Adani’s flagship Adani Enterprises are in the race to bid on a 5G spectrum that offers speeds about 10 times faster than 4G. -free connectivity and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real time.
After a flying start on Tuesday with players pouring in Rs 1.45 lakh crore on the first day, the numbers rose incrementally on Wednesday and Thursday. Bidding activities resumed Friday with the 17th round.
Bids worth Rs 1,49,623 crore were received in 16 rounds of bidding until Thursday. A total of 72 GHz (gigahertz) of radio waves worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore is on the block.
The auction will be held for spectrum in various low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz), mid (3300 MHz) and high (26 GHz) frequency bands.
In addition to powering ultra-low-latency connections, enabling the download of full-length, high-quality video in a matter of seconds to a mobile device (even in crowded areas), fifth-generation or 5G solutions such as e-health could creating, connected vehicles, more immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming, among others. PTI MBI BALL BAL