Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea began submitting bids on June 25 for the latest round of the 5G spectrum auction. The Indian government is selling airwaves worth Rs 96,317.65 crore.

“To augment existing telecom services and maintain continuity of services, the government will hold the spectrum auction on Tuesday, 25 June 2024. This is in line with the government’s commitment to facilitate affordable, state-of-art high-quality telecom services to all the citizens,” the government said in a statement on June 25.

Mock Auctions were conducted on June 3, June 13 and June 14 to familiarize the bidders with the e-Auction platform. Subsequently, the auction catalogue was published on June 24 at 09:00 AM to ensure there is no inaccuracy in the data of bidders.

The government aims to raise approximately Rs 10,000 crore from the auction, though brokerage reports estimate it could be between Rs 4,000 crore and Rs 16,600 crore. In the 2022 auction, the government achieved a record Rs 1.5 lakh crore.