The spectrum auction has been extended to Day 3, which will be tomorrow - Thursday. It started on Tuesday (July 26, 2022) and now will see bidders coming into action for the third day. It is interesting to think about the spectrum auction right now as there were many who thought that the telcos wouldn’t spend much money because the spectrum pricing is quite expensive. However, what has happened is exactly the opposite. The amount of money that has flowed in this auction towards the government is more than what the analysts earlier predicted. Ashwini Vaishnaw, the telecom minister, said this spectrum auction has garnered Rs 1.49 lakh crore for the government, reports PTI. These are remarkable numbers, and the spectrum auction stretching to the third day is a happy note for the government, which would have expected the bidding to die down on day 2 itself. ICICI Securities had said that it is most likely Jio which has acquired 10 MHz of spectrum PAN-India in the 700 MHz band. It is a very crucial band for offering greater coverage services to consumers and thus will help with both 5G and 4G. Jio is likely going to be the bidder with the largest bids in total, followed by Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Adani Data Networks.
