India's latest spectrum auction is set to rake in well over $13 billion, due to competitive bidding by the eight participants.
As of Saturday, the auction had already taken in bids worth 860 billion rupees ($13.7 billion), Press Trust of Indiareported.
The auction of 2G and 3G airwaves has now had 24 rounds over four days. Bidding is due to recommence today, and based on the current trajectory the auction could end up raising over one trillion rupees.
India is auctioning a total of 380.75 MHz of spectrum in the 800-MHz, 900-MHz, 1,800-MHz and 2,100-MHz bands, including spectrum due to be relinquished by Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications upon the expiration of some existing telecom licenses.
Vodafone and incumbent Airtel will need to secure more spectrum to serve their existing voice and data operations in certain markets
The auction has drawn controversy due to the government's decision to auction just 5MHz of 2.1-GHz spectrum during the process and to set the reserve price for this spectrum at a high 38.99 billion rupees.
High bid prices will be detrimental to an industry already struggling with the costs of existing auctions and extensive 3G rollouts.
More 2.1-GHz spectrum will be auctioned at a later date once it becomes available.