Both Airtel and Vodafone are required by contract to buy spectrum in certain key cities in the country, and a source today said that both will participate in the auction starting on February 3.
“Vodafone has filed the first application, followed by Airtel,” a source confirmed.
Today is the last day for submitting initial interest in the auction, and companies can withdraw their applications up until January 27.
The Indian government will auction spectrum in two separate frequency bands and expects to raise a minimum of $1.8 billion from the sale.
An estimated 403MHz of 2G spectrum in the 1800MHz band and 45MHz of spectrum in the 900Mhz band is being auctioned. Earlier this month, Indian regulators announced amendments to the auction rules.
