A month before South Africa is due to sell spectrum for 4G and 5G mobile networks, India raised R160-billion in an auction of airwaves, amid prudent bidding by wireless carriers that have suffered years of price war.
The country will receive 778.2-billion rupees from its spectrum auction that managed to sell 60% of the airwaves put on sale, India’s telecoms secretary, Anshu Prakash, told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm, India’s largest wireless operator, was the top bidder and bought spectrum worth 571.2-billion rupees, Prakash said.
Bharti Airtel, the second biggest phone carrier by customers, will spend the equivalent of R39-billion on airwaves while Vodafone Group’s loss-making Indian unit said on Tuesday it won spectrum in five zones in India, without disclosing how much it spent.
The latest spectrum auction — first one since 2016 — will boost the Indian exchequer as the government tries to jump start the economy after the pandemic-induced recession last year. — Reported by Ragini Saxena, (c) 2021 Bloomberg LP