DoT has released a list of the agencies which are technically qualified for conducting the e-auction of Spectrum in various bands later this year. Out of all the applications for the job of e-auctioneer, DoT has shortlisted 4 agencies that meet the technical qualifications required. The financial bids of these agencies will be opened on 18th May at 2 PM and the final e-auctioneer will be declared on 22nd May.
List of technically qualified agencies:
- M/s. C1 India Pvt Ltd, Haryana
- M/s. mjunction services limited, Kolkata
- M/s. MSTC Limited, Kolkata
- M/s. e-Procurement Technologies Ltd, Ahmedabad
Spectrum Auction 2020 has already been delayed quite a lot, mainly due to the Covid-19 situation in India. Ideally, DoT is supposed to conduct an e-auction at least 18 months before the expiry of spectrum held by operators and a major chunk of existing spectrum held by legacy operators expires between July to September 2021 which implies that DoT will look to conduct the auction latest by July this year, so as to give the operators enough time to plan their future strategies.
With the current level of financial stress that the operators are going through due to the pending AGR dues and the reduced revenue from recharges during the lockdown period, analysts predict limited participation from Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in the auction. Jio, on the other hand, may look at picking up a substantial amount of 4G capable spectrum to meet the demand of its growing subscriber base and has already started to prepare a war chest by equity stake sales in Jio Platforms over the last month.
This will be the first spectrum auction in India since 2016. Initially DoT had planned on putting up for sale both 4G as well as 5G spectrum but looking at the current situation, it is expected that the upcoming auction will only see 4G frequency bands going up for sale while 5G spectrum auction may get pushed back to 2021.
