After 19 days of rigorous bidding, the auction of airwaves for telecom operators concluded, with officials initially placing the figure of cumulative bids at over Rs.100,000 crore.

auction was conducted for 800 MHz, 900 Mhz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz covering both mobile telephony and broadband, including 4G.

Till Tuesday, the government had received cumulative commitments of Rs.109,000 crore from the eight telecom operators in the fray — Reliance Communications, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Tata Teleservices, Uninor, Idea Cellular and Aircel.

A reserve price of Rs.3,423 crore per MHz was fixed for 800 MHz frequency, Rs.3,399 crore for 900 MHz band and Rs.1,425 crore for the 1,800 MHz band. The government also fixed a reserve price of Rs.3,511 crore per megahertz for the frequency for 3G spectrum.