Gautam Adani’s billionaire group is said to plan a surprise entry into a race to obtain a telecommunications spectrum, which will immediately fight Reliance Jio and Telecom Telecom Sunil Bharti Mittal Airtel, said the source.

Applications to participate in July 26’s air wave auction, including those who are able to provide fifth or 5G generation of telecommunications services such as high -speed internet connectivity, are closed on Friday with at least four applications.

Idea Jio, Airtel and Vodafone – three private players in the telecommunications sector – applied, three sources with knowledge about the problem said.

The fourth applicant is Adani Group, one of the sources said, adding that the group had recently obtained the National Long Long Long (NLD) and International (ILD) licenses.

But this cannot be confirmed independently. Email and telephone calls made to the Adani group did not get any response.

According to the auction schedule, the details of applicant ownership will be issued on July 12 and the bidder must be known at that time.

A total of 72,097.85 MHz spectrum worth at least ₹ 4.3 Lakh Crore will be placed in the block during the auction, determined to start on July 26, 2022.

The auction will be held for various low spectrums (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), MID (3300 MHz) and high frequency bands (26 GHz).

Ambani and Adani, who came from Gujarat and then built a Mega business group, until recently did not deal directly. While the first is expanded from the oil and petrochemical business into telecommunications and retail, the last varies from the port segment to coal, energy distribution and flight.

Adani in recent months established a subsidiary to go into Petrochemicals – a business that was started by Ambani Dhirubhai’s father before downstream and upstream operations.

Ambani has also announced a multi-billion dollar plan for a new energy business, including the Giga factory for solar panels, batteries, green hydrogen and fuel cells

Adani, who previously announced plans to become the largest renewable energy producer in the world in 2030, has also launched hydrogen ambitions.

And now, if the Adani group participated in the 5G auction on July 26, it would be the first direct competition with Ambani.

Cabinet, last month, approved a 5G auction with a reserve price recommended by the Telecom Sector Regulator Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). The regulator has recommended a cut of around 39 percent of the floor price for sales of 5G spectrum for cellular services.

For the first time, there are no mandatory requirements to make payments in advance by successful bidders.

Payment for spectrum can be made in the same 20 annual installments that must be paid previously at the beginning of each year, the expected relaxation can significantly facilitate the requirements of cash flow and reduce the cost of doing business in this sector.

The bidder will be given an option to submit a spectrum after 10 years without future obligations in connection with balanced installments. There is no SUC (cost of use of spectrum) to be collected for the spectrum obtained in this auction.

While the 5G spectrum in nine frequency bands will be auctioned off for telecommunications operators, notifications that invite applications related to offers issued by the Telecommunications Department-said that technology companies will be allowed to take a 5G spectrum for their non-public prisoners network about leases from telecommunications companies.

The bidding document says the direct allocation of spectrum to technology companies will take part in the study and recommendations of the trai sector regulators regarding aspects such as prices and allocation modality.

Decisions on personal networks are seen as dampers for telecommunications companies, which have argued that if independent entities are permitted to establish a private prisoner network with a direct spectrum of 5G by the telecommunications department, the TSP business case (telecommunications service provider) will be very degraded.