The spectrum auction for the 1,800 and 900 megahertz band has entered the third day today. Eight Telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and new entrant Reliance Jio Infocomm, are in the fray for two sets of airwaves frequencies that can be used for 4G services. The companies had put in bids worth a total of about 45,000 crore rupees on the second day of the auction, bringing hope for the government to curb the fiscal deficit.The fiscal deficit at 5.16 lakh crore rupees has crossed 95 per cent of the budget target in the first nine months of 2013-14.Now, even if bidders opt to pay the final auction price in instalments, the government will get at least 11,790crores, exceeding the target of collecting 11,343 crores in upfront payments.This is the biggest spectrum auction being conducted by the government with about 385 mHz of airwaves in 1,800 band and 46 MHz of airwaves frequencies in 900 Mhz band being put on sale.The auction started on Monday, following a Supreme Court order in the 2G case. The apex court had directed that all radiowaves freed from the cancellation of 122 licences in February 2012 should be auctioned. Besides, 900 Mhz is being auctioned as some of the radiowaves in this band are held under old telecom licences which will start expiring from November this year.