5G Auction Enters Day 4, Bids Of Rs 1,49,623 cr Submitted So Far 

The 5G auction has entered its fourth day today with sixteen rounds of bidding totaling Rs 1,49,623 crores submitted so far by telecom giants Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Adani Group and Vodafone Idea.

The seventeenth round of bidding would be held on Friday, according to telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, who stated on Thursday that sixteen rounds of bidding had already been completed in three days. In various frequency bands spanning from 26 gigahertz to 600 megahertz, the government has made 72 gigahertz of airwaves available for purchase for a 20-year period. Yesterday, bidding took place in seven rounds.

In various frequency bands spanning from 26 gigahertz to 600 megahertz, the government has made 72 gigahertz of airwaves available for purchase for a 20-year period. Airwaves in the Low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), Mid (3300 MHz), and High (26 GHz) frequency bands have been placed up for auction in accordance with the 5G auction rules.

To ensure a successful auction, the government has allowed telecom companies to pay in 20 equal installments. According to experts, telecom service providers will use the mid-and high-band spectrums to build out 5G services. Reliance Jio, the largest telecom provider in India, has made an earnest money deposit (EMD) of Rs 14,000 crore, Bharti Airtel, Rs 5,500 crore, and debt-ridden Vodafone Idea, Rs 2,200 crore. Interestingly, the financially robust Adani Data Network, managed by Gautam Adani, invested Rs 100 crore EMD. The EMD value is the maximum number of airwaves that a corporation can bid for in the auction; typically, companies can bid 8–10 times the EMD value.

From the perspective of the consumer, 5G technology will be 10 times faster than 4G and 30 times faster than 3G. It will also enable the connection of more devices to a quicker mobile network in a smaller space without any speed degradation. India has chosen to exclude Chinese manufacturers of telecom equipment from its 5G market. 5G would enable services like e-health, connected vehicles, more immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and enhanced mobile cloud gaming in addition to supporting extremely low latency connections.