New Delhi: A direct fight has been seen between the country’s three leading billionaires Mukesh Ambani, Gautam Adani and Sunil Mittal for 5G telecom services. The most interesting fight will be between Ambani and Adani. Adani is slowly making inroads in areas where Ambani’s business is strong. While both the companies have invested heavily in the renewable energy sector and have been rivals of each other, they are now locked in a battle in telecom.
Adani is now the fourth richest man in the world and Mukesh is on the 10th position in this list. Adani is expanding its business into various sectors at a very fast pace. But Mukesh is investing in moderation. The 5G spectrum auction process has officially started from today. There are four companies in the race to get this spectrum. They are Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Adani Data Network and Vodafone Idea. It is the most expensive spectrum auction in the country. Their fight in telecom is expected to be very interesting.
The spectrum auction started from 10 am today and continued till 6 pm. This time, the government has made 72 GHz spectrum available for auction. Its cost is estimated to be Rs 4.3 lakh crore. There has not been much competition among companies to get spectrum in the first days. So it is expected that the auction will end in less days.
According to the Telecom department estimates, the government will get about Rs 1 lakh crore revenue from this auction. According to market experts, Jio will be ahead in acquiring spectrum followed by Airtel. Participation from Vodafone Idea and Adani is expected to be less.
Before the start of the 5G spectrum auction, Jio had submitted a maximum of Rs 14,000 crore, while Airtel had raised Rs 5,500 crore and Vodafone Idea had raised Rs 2,200 crore. Adani Data Networks raised only Rs 100 crore. This signals that Jio will try to acquire more spectrum. Adani will focus on bringing in less spectrum and setting up private networks. According to market experts, Jio may spend Rs 1.27 lakh crore, Airtel Rs 48,000 crore, Vodafone Idea Rs 20,000 crore and Adani Rs 700 crore to buy 5G spectrum.