Spectrum Battle: India’s largest spectrum auction worth Rs 5.63 lakh cr starts read more at here www.spinonews.com/index.php/item/1102-spectrum-battle-india-s-largest-spectrum-auction-worth-rs-5-63-lakh-cr-starts

India's biggest auction of telecom spectrum started on Saturday morning with over 2300 Mhz of airwaves on sale at a total reserve price of Rs 5.60 lakh crore.

Leading telecom operators, including Reliance Jio, Idea Cellular, Vodafone, Aircel, Tata Tele and Bharti Airtel, are in the fray for frequencies that are crucial for next-generation telecom services. The last auction held in March 2015 fetched the government record bids of over Rs 1.1 lakh crore.

There is no end limit set by the government for the auction, but the bidding will be between 9 am to 7 pm every day except on Day 1 when it started at 10 am.

Telecom secretary JS Deepak has said the process would be transparent and the award of airwaves quick. “One new bidding-friendly measure we have adopted this year is that spectrum won will be assigned within 30 days from the date of upfront payment.”

The 2,300-plus MHz of airwaves on the block for telecom operators are in seven bands -- 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz and 2,500 MHz. In the previous auction 470.75 MHz was on offer, which was set to fetch the exchequer $17 billion during its tenure.

The government has decided to allot the right to the spectrum won through auction for 20 years. The service providers who win airwaves below 1 GHz bandwidth will have to pay 25% upfront, and for those winning above that, the upfront payment will be 50%.

The government has fixed a reserve price of Rs 5.66 lakh crore ($85 billion) towards the band. The government has also reduced interest on instalments to 9.3 per cent from about 10 per cent earlier.