The sixth round of spectrum auctions will start from March 1 with the government performing a balancing act on the reserve prices across various spectrum bands, drastically slashing the price for the bands that were a washout in the previous auction in October 2016 while raising it for those that fetched bids.

Telecom operators may not bid aggressively as the reserve prices for the metro circles in several bands such as 1800, 2100 and 2300 MHz have been increased from the last auction held four year ago.

However, the reserve price of 700 MHz, which did not get any bids in 2016, has been reduced to attract operators.

Analysts said Reliance Jio may bid for spectrum in the 700MHz band, which is most suited for 5G. Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, has said Jio plans to roll out 5G in the second half of 2021. The 3300-3600 MHz bands most suited to 5G has been kept out of the auction.

However, analysts fear the auction may be a repeat of the 2016 fiasco when large chunks of airwaves remained unsold due to high minimum prices. Four years ago, the government had raised just Rs 65,789 crore through the auction, a fraction of the Rs 5.63 lakh crore worth of airwaves put on sale. Spectrum in the 700MHz and 900MHz bands were completely unsold in 2016.

Pricing of spectrum has been an issue, with top executives at Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea repeatedly demanding that the government lower prices.

Market analysts have indicated the upcoming auction will get bids in the range of Rs 30,000 crore-Rs 50,000 crore.

The Union cabinet on Wednesday had approved the proposal to auction 2,251.25 megahertz (MHz) of spectrum worth Rs 3.92 lakh crore in seven frequency bands — 1700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz and 2500 Mhz - at the base price recommended by the telecom regulator.