Adani may join telecom spectrum race, compete with Reliance Jio, Airtel, Vi

The Adani group is believed to be one of the four companies that on Friday showed interest in the government’s upcoming telecom spectrum auction. The move would expand the conglomerate’s presence to a sector dominated by established players like Reliance Jio, which is part of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance group, Sunil Mittal-controlled Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea Ltd.

The telecom department’s upcoming auction includes the coveted 5G band needed for high-speed internet connectivity.

Four independent sources told Business Standard that the Adani Group was interested in getting into telecom. A group spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.

The four players would first have to provide ownership details by July 12 and later a bidder-ownership compliance certificate. After that, there will be a pre-qualification of bidders. Companies will have the right to withdraw auction applications by July 19 and bidders will be announced the next day. The auction is expected to begin on July 27.

Experts are divided about the possible strategy of the Gautam Adani-led Adani group. Some say it is investing heavily in data centres, with a view to making it an enterprise business. It has tied up with international company EdgeConnex for a 50-50 joint venture to build and operate large data centres in Chennai, Navi Mumbai, Noida, Vizag, and Hyderabad.

Adani’s enterprise data business will compete with Indian telecom companies and international tech giants like Amazon and Google. It would be a smart move to buy a limited quantity of millimetre band spectrum — it offers high speed and is relatively cheap – and support it by a small amount of spectrum in the 3.5 GHz band.

Other experts believe the Adani group might be planning to enter into 5G services and compete with established companies before likely acquiring or collaborating with an existing player.

News agency PTI, while quoting unnamed sources, reported that Adani was the fourth applicant in the telecom auction and had obtained National Long Distance (NLD) and International Long Distance (ILD) licences.

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