India’s recently concluded 5G auctions confounded expectations by raking in around 45% more than most had predicted. Operators had threatened to be cautious on spending or even refuse to participate, partly because of their financial pressures and regulator TRAI’s much-criticized habit of setting unrealistically high reserve prices for spectrum; but also out of pique over the government’s decision to ignore their protests over allocations of spectrum to enterprises. In the end, competitive instinct kicked in, fueled by the ambitions of thebnaires behind the leading operators – Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio’s parent group Reliance Industries; and Sunil Bharti Mittal, owner of Airtel (the third major operator is Vi, which is majority owned by Vodafone). After 40 intense…