The 1800Mhz Spectrum Auction comes to an end with Reliance Jio Infocomm winning 14 out of the 22 Circles. R-Jio has won 5MHz-7MHz of 1800MHz spectrum in 14 circles for a total investment of ~Rs111bn. We believe it would look to complete the pan-India footprint in 1800MHz (to be used for 2G voice) through acquisition Videocon Telecom.
The Circles where Reliance Jio has bid and won the Spectrum complement the circles where Mukesh Ambani backed Videocon Telecom has already secured 1800MHz spectrum in the 2012 Auction. Have a look at the chart below which compares the 1800MHz Spectrum Foot print of Videocon Telecom & Reliance Jio Infocomm.
From the above chart it is evident that Reliance Jio Infocomm didn’t bid in circles where Videocon already has a footprint with the exception of Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh the two states which are close to Mukesh Ambani’s industrial empire and may witness some unseen State of the Art Network Deployment and Telecom services anywhere in the world. MP was the first state which erstwhile RCom got its operating GSM license for in early 2000. The takeover of Videocon will help Reliance Jio get PAN India footprint in 1800MHz band thus augmenting the 2.3GHz 4G LTE Spectrum band.