The service areas in the auction are Tier 4 service areas and post-auction may be Tier 4 or on a grid cell basis.

Post-auction, CSK first signed up the Indian U-19 all-rounder Baba Aparajith and also uncapped Tamil Nadu player Vijay Shankar.

"Auctions have been unfolding with participants knowing ahead of time that there would be a buyer in the secondary market post-auction," said Scott Sherman, interest-rate strategist at Credit Suisse in New York, one of the 20 primary dealers.

Matthew Howett, an analyst at Ovum, added: “It’s clear that Ofcom continues to value Three’s disruptive nature and wants to, in effect, guarantee its existence post-auction...The decisions they take now are likely to affect the level of competition in the sector for at least a decade.