5G Auction – State & Telecom Circle wise spectrum auction details

Government of India via their Department of Telecom, has concluded a 7 day long spectrum auction for 5G frequency in India. 4 Companies, namely, Bharti AirTel, Reliance Jio, Vi or Vodafone Idea and Adani Data Networks, have participated and purchased 5G frequency license for mobile operations.

DoT (Department of Telecom) has released the bid details to the public. Let’s take a look in state and Indian telecom circle wise breakup as which company took what kind of frequency.

It is pretty evident from this chart that Reliance Jio is aggressively pushing for 5G since they have aggressively purchased lower, mid and high range frequencies in all of circles. Jio seems to be eyeing for another block baster pan India telecom rollout with it’s 5G Network. With low, mid and high range frequency, Jio is definitely in a good position to offer a full strength and high speed network coverage.

AirTel seems to bet on mid to higher end of the spectrum with higher bandwidth but lower range / coverage. One can guess that Airtel is eyeing for a pricy but high speed network since with higher frequency, more towers would be needed for better coverage.

Vodafone is struggling here. They didn’t even bid for a pan India coverage. They seem to be saving money but opting out of certain cities and states.

Adani Data Network was a late entry with speculation of mobile business roll out but if you look at the circles and frequency they have purchased, it’s pretty much evident that they are eyeing for private 5G network for their ports and other large SEZ business parks.

Source of the 5G spectrum auction data -> Auction of Spectrum 2022 | Department of Telecommunications | Ministry of Communication | Government of India (dot.gov.in)

So there you have it, state and city wise breakup of 5G frequency for each of the 3 mobile network operators of India.