Idea Cellular, Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Tata Teleservices, Reliance Communications, and Reliance Jio Infocomm have successfully ‘pre-qualified’ for the upcoming spectrum auctions, according to information filed on the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) website. The DoT had earlier issued a preliminary notice inviting applicants for prospective bidders and specified a tentative timeline for the auction process in August. According to the latest notification (pdf), the government has already received Rs 14,653.07 crore by way of Earnest Money Deposits (EMD)—a mandatory Bank Guarantee from a Scheduled Bank for the purpose of pre-qualification—and from application fees from 7 different telcos : -Idea Cellular has submitted an—worth Rs 2000 crore; and an additional 1 lakh rupee as application fee. -Vodafone India has submitted an EMD amount of Rs 2740 crore; and 1 lakh rupee as application fee. -Bharti Airtel has deposited Rs 1980 crore as EMD along with Rs 1 lakh as application fee. -Aircel Ltd has deposited Rs 120 crore as EMD, and 1 lakh rupee as application fee. It can bid in any spectrum band across any service area. -Tata Teleservices has submitted Rs 1,000 crore as EMD and the additional 1 lakh rupee as application fee in behalf of Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd (TTML). -Reliance Communications (RCOM) has deposited EMD worth Rs 313 crore along with the application fee of Rs 1 lakh. -Reliance Jio has submitted the highest EMD amount among all telcos, which amounts to Rs 6,500 crore, along with the application fee of Rs 1 lakh. Quantum of…
