(CU)_Reliance Jio did well on Tuesday when it picked up almost 490MHz worth of spectrum for ₹57,100 crore at India’s most recent spectrum auction. Of this amount the company will pay ₹19,940 crore upfront and the rest over a period of 18 years.
The auction was conducted over 4 rounds and made a total of 2,251MHz available and reliance bought a hefty chunk of it. In total, Reliance Jio’s expenditure amounted to ₹60.8 crore per MHz, the telco said.
Although Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance, stated that this additional spectrum is to help India with the expansion of its digital footprint and to roll out their 5G technology, he has been saying this since last year and yet nothing has happened.
Airtel and Vodafone has also participated in this auction and they each spent around ₹18,700 crore and ₹1,990 crore, respectively. With these amounts they also acquired a decent amount of MHz of spectrum all over the country across five different bands. Vodafone claimed it entered the auction holding the biggest quantity of spectrum and only spent money on spectrum that was coming up for renewal.
When comparing, Bharti said the additional spectrum would help it serve millions of users and expand 4G coverage. It added that sub-GHz spectrum would improve its deep indoor coverage and its mid-band acquisitions would put it in a position to provide 5G.
