The government will be able to mop up a maximum of Rs 52,000 crore against spectrum worth Rs 96,000 crore to be put up for auctions in June, earnest money deposits (EMDs) submitted by the three telecom operators show.
Reliance Jio’s deposit is the highest at Rs 3,000 crore. It is three times that of Bharti Airtel’s Rs 1,050 crore and 10 times higher than Vodafone Idea’s Rs 300 crore, taking the total to Rs 4,350 crore.
EMD indicates the bidding intensity of the operators concerned and the amount of spectrum they intend to acquire. Going by it, Jio has the option to spend up to Rs 36,000 crore or 37.4% of the total value of spectrum on sale. Airtel can spend up to Rs 12,500 crore or 13% of the total value of spectrum, whereas Vodafone Idea can spend up to Rs 3,600 crore.
On the basis of the EMD, Jio has got 21,363 eligibility points, Airtel 7,613 eligibility points, and Vodafone Idea 2,200 points. The EMD, however, does not mean a bidder has to compulsorily exhaust all its points in the auction.
A total of 10,523.15 MHz spectrum across the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz bands, worth Rs 96,317.65 crore will be put up for auction.
In the 5G auctions held in July 2022, the department of telecom (DoT) received EMD worth Rs 21,800 crore and the final mop-up was over Rs 1.5 trillion.
In the upcoming auctions, a subdued response is expected as purchases may be largely restricted to airwaves due for renewal in some circles. The government is not expecting anything beyond Rs 10,000 crore, according to officials.
In the last spectrum auction, Reliance Jio spent Rs 88,078 crore towards 4G/5G spectrum, followed by Bharti Airtel at Rs 43,084 crore, and Vodafone Idea at Rs 18,799 crore.