According to telecom companies, at least 33 per cent of airwaves were put on sale at the 5G auction worth Rs 1.6 trillion.

They said that the overall demand for airwaves would be higher than in previous auctions. “Telcos may look at 700MHz more closely. It is the primary sub-GHz band for 5G globally. Incumbents may also bid more aggressively for spectrum in 3.3GHz and 26GHz to crowd out the Adani Group. This suggests overall demand to range $13-20 billion, which is higher than the demand seen in previous auctions,” said Jeffries Equity Research.

“Bharti Airtel is expected to bid for 100MHz of spectrum in 3.3GHz band and 800MHz of 26GHz, enabling it to lower its spectrum usage charge immediately”, they said.

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“This should lead to spectrum purchase of $5-6billion, implying 7-9x of the EMD submitted. In past auctions, Bharti has spent 5-7x of EMD submitted,” Jeffries said.

At Least 50MHz spectrum in 3.3 GHz in metro and 400MHz spectrum in 26GHz band which leads to spending in a range of $1.7-2.3 billion, they added.