Billionaire Gautam Adani's group on Saturday confirmed its entry into the race to acquire telecom spectrum, which it said will be used to create a private network to support its businesses from airports to power as well as data centres.
"As India prepares to roll out the next generation of 5G services through this auction, we are one of the many applications participating in the open bidding process," the group said in a statement.
PTI on Friday reported Adani group making a surprise entry which will pitch it directly against Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio and telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal's Airtel.
"We are participating in the 5G spectrum auction to provide private network solutions along with enhanced cyber security in the airport, ports and logistics, power generation, transmission, distribution, and various manufacturing operations," the statement said.
Adani Group plans to use the airwaves for its data centre as well as the super app it is building to support businesses from electricity distribution to airports, gas retailing to ports.
"As we build our own digital platform encompassing super apps, edge data centres, and industry command and control centres, we will need ultra high quality data streaming capabilities through a high frequency and low latency 5G network across all our businesses," it said. Applications for participating in the July 26 auction of airwaves, including those capable of providing fifth-generation or 5G telecom services such as ultra-high-speed internet connectivity, closed on Friday with at least four applications.
Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea -- the three private players in the telecom sector -- applied.
The fourth applicant is Adani Group, which had recently obtained National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) licences.
"If we are awarded 5G spectrum in the open bidding, it will also align with our recent announcement of significantly increasing the Adani Foundation's investments in education, healthcare and skill development in rural areas, each of which stands to benefit from 5G technology," Adani group said. "All of this is aligned with our nation building philosophy and supporting Atmanirbhar Bharat."
