RIL likely to bid for 2G spectrum in upcoming auction

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) is likely to bid for mobile phone spectrum in the auction due in November to complement its wireless broadband services, according to several media reports. The company itself has not confirmed the reports so far.

The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate is making a re-entry into the telecommunication business, and is being talked as the most aggressive likely bidder in the Supreme Court-mandated auction of telecom spectrum.

In 2005, RIL divested its telecom business to the Anil Ambani-led ADAG as part of the business bifucation agreement between the brothers

Reliance was a notable participant at the pre-bid conference organised by the Department of Telecom (DoT) in the run-up to the resale of 2G spectrum and licences cancelled by the Supreme Court in February. The auction is scheduled to start on 28 September.

RIL is most likely to put a direct bid, one report said. If for some reasons it is unable to make a bid by itself, the company may fund purchase of spectrum by another company and then acquire it.

Entering the auction would mark Mukesh Ambani's first foray into mobile voice services, after the non-compete agreement with his brother Anil, who has a sizeable presence in the sector, was scrapped in 2010 by mutual agreement. The licenses would supplement the broadband internet services Reliance plans to offer with the fourth-generation spectrum it purchased two years ago.