The participants in the upcoming 5G spectrum auction put up their earnest money deposits (EMD) earlier this week, giving a peek into their strategies.

It is unlikely that the Adani Group is planning to enter the consumer or enterprise mobility spaces, as indicated by its deposit of just 1 billion Indian rupees (US$12.5 million). This will allow it to purchase spectrum worth INR6.5 billion ($81.3 million) to INR7 billion ($87.56 million). This will come as a major relief to the private telcos, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

This indicates that they may be looking to procure spectrum for captive networks, most likely for their own needs.

On the other hand

In comparison, Reliance Jio, India's largest service provider, has put in INR140 billion ($1.75 billion) as earnest money for the auction. Bharti Airtel has deposited INR55 billion ($688 million) and Vodafone Idea has put in INR22 billion ($275 million).

Jio can potentially purchase more than INR1 trillion ($12.5 billion) worth, including 700Mhz spectrum, which has remained unsold in the past two auctions because of the high base price.

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The much-awaited 5G spectrum auction is all set to start on July 26, 2022, and service providers are likely to launch services by the end of the year. All three telcos will probably focus on 3.5Ghz and acquire limited spectrum from other frequency bands.

Based on the earnest amount deposited, it seems that the bidding is likely to be muted. If the Adani Group had put up a large amount, the bidding might have been aggressive – but this is not the case.

A good amount of spectrum availability, coupled with a limited number of players and a high reserve price means bidding will be subdued.

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— Gagandeep Kaur, contributing editor, special to Light Reading