Adani, Jio, Airtel, Voda Idea to bid for 5G

New Delhi: A unit of billionaire Gautam Adani’s flagship Adani Enterprise Ltd, a subsidiary of Reliance group’s digital arm as well as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have applied to participate in the July 26 auction of 5G spectrum, the government said Tuesday. Adani Data Networks Ltd -- in which AEL’s equity holding is 100 per cent -- got initial approval for grant of unified licence with authorisation of ILD, NLD and ISP-B for Gujarat circle, just days before the July 8 deadline for applying for participation in the 5G auction.

Adani Data Networks showed a net worth of Rs 248.35 crore in its application to participate in the auction at the close of application on July 8, according to the information posted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). AEL’s Rs 4,730.66 crore net worth will be counted for calculating the net worth towards the eligibility for bidding. Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, a subsidiary of Jio Platforms Ltd - the unit that holds the digital assets of Reliance - also applied for participation in the spectrum bidding process. It has shown a net worth of Rs 1,97,790 crore as on March 31, 2022.

As per the information posted by DoT about the applicants, Birla Group held a 27.38 per cent stake in Vodafone Idea and UK’s Vodafone 47.61 per cent. Vodafone Idea has negative net worth of Rs 80,918 crore as on March, 2022, while the paid-up capital is at Rs 32,119 crore. Bharti Airtel’s net worth stood at Rs 75,886.8 crore as on March 31, 2022. “...applications have been received from the...applicants for participation in the 2022 auction for rights to use spectrum in 600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300 MHz and 26 GHz Bands,” the Department of Telecom (DoT) said.It listed out Adani Data Networks, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel as the four applicants.

The spectrum auction, scheduled to start on July 26, may see aggressive bids for some frequency bands, with the entry of Adani Data Networks and established players Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel looking to strengthen their hold in the industry. Adani Group on Saturday said it is in the race to acquire spectrum, which it said will be used to create a private network to support its businesses from airports to power as well as data centres.

A total of 72,097.85 MHz of spectrum worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore will be put on the block during the auction. The auction will be held for spectrum in various low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), mid (3300 MHz) and high (26 GHz) frequency bands.