The second day of the mega telecom spectrum auctions fetched ₹56,792 crore, up ₹3,231 crore as compared to ₹53,531 crore on the first day.

The two-days of auction have seen 11 rounds in total — six rounds on the second day of one hour each and five rounds of 1.5 hours each on the first day (October 1).

While the 2300 MHz was sold off on Saturday, the bidding activity reached 92 per cent as compared to 90 per cent the previous day.

There was not much change in the action and there was only one bid in the 2100 MHz in Maharashtra and one bid in 2500 MHz in West Bengal. There was bidding for the 700 MHz band on the second day too.

According to sources in the government, while there was not much ‘change in the activity on the second day’, they believed the auctions to continue in later days, as compared to some analysts who expect it to end within this week.

“Even in one block, if bidding continues, then it may continue for longer days. So, you never know when it stretches,” said the official.

An industry veteran also said that the auctions may continue even after Dussehra (next week).

The seven telecom operators, including Airtel, Aircel, Idea, Reliance Communications (RCom), Jio and Vodafone, are participating in the auctions. They had submitted total earnest money deposit (EMD) of around ₹15,000 crore.

According to calculations of the EMDs, analysts expected the auctions to yield around ₹80,000 crore. There will be about 2354.55 MHz of spectrum put up for auction.

The various airwaves worth ₹5.63 lakh crore are on sale in bands including 700MHz, 800 MHz, 900 Mhz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500MHz.

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