Bids totalling over Rs 44,600 crore were received by the second day of the telecom spectrum auction with demand remaining robust even on Tuesday. After the completion of 12 rounds of bidding, a total of over Rs 44,600 crore of bids came in for all the 22 circles or regional zones, industry and Government sources said.
Eight companies, including Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm ltd, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone are competing for two bandwidth slots of 900 MegaHertz and 1,800 MHz in 22 circles, that have been offered in the third spectrum auction within 15 months.
Aggressive bidding was seen for the 900 MHz, which is in short supply and is being auctioned in just three cities, Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata — markets where licences of Bharti and Vodafone will expire in November unless they buy the radiowaves in this round of auction.