Barring Sistema Shyam, the Centre has received applications from all the other eight private telecom companies for bidding in the upcoming spectrum auction. Analysts said the presence of all the major players indicates that the bidding will be aggressive. The list includes Reliance Jio, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Airtel. Tata Teleservices and Aircel, which did not participate in the last round, have also put in their applications. Monday was the last day for submitting applications for participating in the auctions starting March 4. The auction is for 800 MHz, 900 MHz and the 2100 MHz bands.
Going by the earnest money deposited by the applicants, Vodafone, Airtel and Reliance Jio are likely to be the most aggressive bidders. The higher the money deposited by the operators, the higher the number of points they will have for bidding.
At present, the company has operations across nine circles. It needs additional spectrum in the 800 MHz band for expanding services to the remaining 13 circles. Analysts said that Sistema may have identified an acquisition target to gain a pan-India footprint.
According to Crsisil, operators will shell out over ₹90,000 crore to bag airwaves in the upcoming auction. “With nearly half of the annual revenues at stake for the large operators, the importance of the forthcoming auction of spectrum can’t be overstated. The bidding will be driven by demand for 900 MHz spectrum, considered most efficient for wireless telephony,” Crisil said.