India’s latest spectrum auction concluded with the sale of 141.4 MHz of radio waves, fetching Rs 11,340.78 crore. Bharti Airtel led the pack, securing spectrum valued at Rs 6,856.76 crore.

Reliance Jio acquired airwaves worth Rs 973.62 crore, while Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) secured spectrum totalling approximately Rs 3,510.4 crore, based on an official statement, a PTI report from New Delhi stated.

Bharti Airtel said it has acquired 97 MHz spectrum, spending a total of Rs 6,857 crore in the spectrum auctions that concluded yesterday morning after seven rounds spanning just over a day.

According to PTI, Bharti Airtel has purchased spectrum in key circles by winning back spectrum that was expiring in the current year.

Additionally, it has purchased spectrum to boost its mid-band spectrum holding across select circles. Following the 2024 spectrum auctions, Airtel will continue to enjoy the largest mid-band spectrum pool in the country.

Airtel continues to judiciously acquire the right amount of spectrum to deliver the best possible experience to our customers. In this auction, we have bolstered our sub‐giga hertz and mid‐band holdings, which will significantly improve our coverage, especially indoor,” said Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, Bharti Airtel in a statement.

The purchase is in line with the company’s stated strategy to build a large pool of mid-band holdings to deliver seamless 4G and 5G services across the country, it said.

A wholly-owned subsidiary of Airtel, Bharti Hexacomm, has acquired 15 MHz of spectrum with an outlay of Rs 1,001 crore, the company said.

Meanwhile, a Reuters report on the matter stated that this year’s auction was expected to be limited in scale compared with the last one in 2022 when 51.2 GHz of radio frequencies were sold for a record Rs. 1.5 trillion, mainly as the 5G spectrum was on auction for the first time.

“As auction for 5G spectrum was held recently and 5G monetization is still in progress, no bidding took place in 800MHz, 2300MHz, 3300MHz and 26GHz bands,” the Telecom Department said in a statement on Wednesday.

“We are looking at hopefully an aggressive rollout … as that builds out, probably demand for spectrum in the 5G bands will also increase once the current amount of spectrum saturates,” a government source told reporters.