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Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has said that, within days of conducting 5G auctions, the government has completed the spectrum 'harmonisation' process, paving the way for players' holdings to be streamlined within a particular band for greater efficiency. The spectrum harmonisation process, critical for 5G services, brings together a bunch of radio wave holdings within a band into one contiguous block with the consensus of all telecom service providers.

Vaishnaw said that the government is on course for the timely allocation of radiowaves bought by players (in the auction) by August 12. The process of approvals from the Committee of Secretaries has also been completed. The harmonisation of the spectrum leads to greater efficiencies for players, as chunks of radio-wave holdings in one band are brought together or consolidated with the consensus of all players.

India's biggest ever auction of telecom spectrum that concluded on August 1 received a record Rs 1.5 lakh crore of bids, with Mukesh Ambani's Jio cornering nearly half of all the airwaves sold with an Rs 88,078 crore bid. Richest Indian Gautam Adani's group, whose entry in the auction was billed by some as another flash point in the rivalry with Ambani, paid Rs 212 crore for 400 MHz, or less than one per cent of all spectrum sold, in a band that is not used for offering public telephony services. Telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel made a successful bid of Rs 43,084 crore, while Vodafone Idea bought spectrum for Rs 18,799 crore.