Five things to know about country's largest spectrum auction

The recently concluded spectrum auction was the largest ever in terms of quantity of airwaves offered and lasted for five days. We look at key details of the spectrum sale which saw participation of seven telcos to gain competitive edge over others. They are Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Tata Teleservices.

• The telecom department had put on sale 2,354.75 MHz of spectrum worth over Rs 5.6 lakh crore at the reserve price, of which over Rs 4 lakh crore was to come from the 700 MHz bandwidth. The auction earned the government Rs 65,789 crore, a mere 40 per cent of the total worth of spectrum that was placed on the block.
• Key players such as Bharti Airtel bid for 173.8 MHz spectrum across 1800/2100/2300 MHZ bands at Rs 14,244 crore, Idea Cellular bid for 349.20 MHz in 800/2100/2300/2500 Mhz bands for Rs 12,798 crore. Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio put in bids for 269.9 MHZ in 800/1800/2300 bands at Rs 13,672 crore. Vodafone spent over Rs 20,000 crore beef up 4G airwaves as the battlefield moves from voice to data for growth. Tata Teleservices has spent close to Rs 4,500 crore, Aircel about Rs 1,100 crore and RCom just about Rs 70 crore.

• The government is expected to receive at least Rs 32,000 crore upfront (excluding service tax) out of the Rs 5,789 crore, the total proceeds of the auction.
• The 700 Mhz and 900 MHz bandwidth remained untouched during the bidding. The 700-Mhz bandwidth is the most expensive and suitable for high-speed data services such as 4G. Telcos say 700 MHz airwaves are too expensive and have urged the government to offer them at a lower price in the future.
• The five-day auction concluded with 31 rounds of bidding. In 2010, the spectrum auction lasted for more than a month and a 2015 edition lasted 19 days and 115 rounds.