The Spectrum auction has finally ended, after 21 days of bidding making the government richer by Rs 1.10 lakh crore. The Communications minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will brief media, on Thursday. The department of telecommunications (DoT) did not give any details of winners today due to pending case in the Supreme Court.

It is clear that the government would be richer by Rs 1.10 lakh crore. However, this money will come in installments over a period of 12 years.

A total of 380.75 MHz of spectrum was put on sale in the premium 900 MHz band, 1,800 MHz and 800 MHz, while 5 MHz was up for bidding in the 2,100 MHz band, used for 3G mobile services, across 17 out of 22 telecom.

The auction ended after 115 rounds of bidding. The total value of bids stood at Rs. 1,09,874 crore.

The most surprising observation of the bidding was interest shown by Reliance Jio in 800 MHz band. Earlier, this band was reserved for CDMA services.

Idea cellular had no option but to bid aggressively as 900 MHz band that it owned in many circles was up for sale. It had to fight to retain its existing spectrum in these circles.

These airwaves mostly included frequencies in 900 MHz band and 1800 MHz band. Government also auctioned airwaves in 1800 MHz band that remained unsold in 2014, and 800 MHz or CDMA band frequencies that were left after sale in 2013.

Telcos are required to pay an upfront payment of 33 per cent in case of 2100 MHz, 1800 MHz bands and 25 per cent for 900 MHz and 800 MHz bands within 10 calendar days of the close of auction.

The winners will pay the rest of the amount over a period of 12 years — two years moratorium and then 10 yearly installments. While Idea, Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications participated in the auction mainly to defend their existing spectrum holding, Reliance Jio, Tata Teleservices, and Telewings (Uninor) participated to buy additional spectrum.