5G Auction: Reliance Jio signals massive intent with earnest money deposit of Rs 14,000 cr

In an indication of the way the 5G auction is set to shape up, Reliance Jio has deposited earnest money of over 2.5 times that of Bharti Airtel, and 6.3 times of Vodafone Idea.

The Jio deposit of Rs 14,000 crore is 140 times that of Adani Data Networks' Rs 100 crore deposit, indicating that the latter may only bid for lower-priced spectrum during the upcoming auction.

According to the list of pre-qualified bidders posted on the telecom department's website, Vodafone Idea has put in an EMD of Rs 2,200 crore. Bharti Airtel has put in Rs 5,500 crore.

With its EMD at Rs 14,000 crore, the eligibility points assigned to Jio for the auction stand at 1,59,830, the highest in the list of four bidders.

Typically, EMD amounts give a broad indication of players' appetite, strategy and plan for picking up spectrum in an auction. It also determines the eligibility points, through which telcos target a specific amount of spectrum in a given circle.

The eligibility points allocated to Airtel are 66,330, while that of Vodafone Idea are 29,370. Adani Data Networks received eligibility points of 1,650, based on its deposit.

Total 72 GHz (gigahertz) of spectrum worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore will be put on the block during the auction. The 5G spectrum auction is scheduled to start on July 26.

The auction will be held for radiowaves in various low-frequency bands (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), mid (3300 megahertz) and high-frequency bands (26GHz).

(With inputs from PTI)

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