On Tuesday, the Department of Telecom got total bids worth Rs 1.45 lakh crore from the four private telecom companies on the first day of the much-anticipated 5G spectrum auction, said Union Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

Industry estimates put sell-off deals to outperform Rs 80,000 crore to Rs 90,000 crore.

Four rounds under the hammer of the 5G spectrum auction were finished on Tuesday, which saw telecom operators – Reliance Jio, Adani Group, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea bid for the spectrum.

The auction process is likely to finish today, and 5G services are expected to be launch  in several cities in the county by the end of the year.

“We have to complete this process by August 14 and 5G services in the country will start by September-October,” Information Technology Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said in a press conference after the bidding yesterday.

 “Going by the initial responses, it seems all the previous revenue records would be broken during this auction process,” Vaishnaw said.

 “Approximately Rs 1.45 lakh crore is an important number. This shows that the entire industry is now moving towards a positive territory in terms of new investments, quality of services, new technology,” the minister said.

The telecom industry is heading towards becoming a sunrise sector, he said.

The four bidders; Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, and Adani Data network, is bidding for nine bands of three different frequency from low (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), to Mid (3300 MHz) and High (26 GHz) frequency bands.

The whole the spectrum auction is worth approx Rs. 5 lakh crore On June 15, the Union Cabinet approved the proposal from the department of tele-communication providers to assign 5G Spectrum through an auction for aprivate captive network.

India is expected to get full fledge 5G services by March 2023, Vaishnaw had said at an event earlier.

 “Telecom is the primary source of digital consumption, and it is very important to bring trusted solutions in telecom. India has its own stack of 4G like radio, equipment, and handset. 4G is ready to deploy in the field and 5G is ready in the lab, and 5G will be ready to deploy in March 2023.”

 “The technology, core network behind 5G services should be built up by India, that would be an achievement for the country,” said Vaishnaw.

Speed capacities of 5G services would be about 10 times higher than what is possible through the current 4G services.

It is the first occasion when the Gautam Adani-led Adani group, which as of late forayed into the telecom area, took part in the offering system of the 5G telecom spectrum allocation bidding. However, the Adani group has said it in no way it wants to enter the customer mobility space.

(Inputs from ANI)