Spectrum acquisition: Four corporations pay Rs 17,876 crore upfront to DoT

Bharti Airtel mentioned Wednesday it has paid Rs 8,312.4 crore upfront to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in the direction of dues for the spectrum it had acquired within the lately concluded 5G auctions. The telco mentioned it paid dues for 4 years upfront, as it might assist future money flows and its 5G rollout.

The DoT additionally bought Rs 7,864.7 crore in upfront cost from Reliance Jio, Rs 1,679.98 crore from Vodafone Idea (Vi), and Rs 18.94 crore from Adani Data Networks, an Adani Group arm. As a outcome, it has obtained a complete of Rs 17,876 crore.

Airtel plans to launch 5G providers this month. Over the final 12 months, it has additionally cleared Rs 24,333.7 crore of deferred spectrum liabilities, the telco mentioned.

“The company believes that this upfront payment coupled with the moratorium on spectrum dues and AGR (adjusted gross revenue) related payments for four years will free up future cash flows and allow Airtel to dedicate resources to single-mindedly concentrate on the 5G roll out,” a press release by Airtel mentioned. It has tied up with Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung for community agreements.

According to DoT’s guidelines for receiving funds from the spectrum auctions, corporations have the choice to pay dues in 20 equated annual instalments. However, telecom operators are additionally free to pay the whole quantity or a part of it upfront, with the minimal period for upfront cost being two years. On August 5, the Department had issued demand notices to all of the 4 corporations to pay up their spectrum funds in 10 days, with Wednesday being the ultimate day.

India’s largest ever spectrum public sale for 5G airwaves had ended on August 1 with bids upwards of Rs 1.5 lakh crore coming in after seven days of bidding unfold over 40 rounds, belying preliminary expectations that the public sale course of can be wrapped up in beneath three days.

Jio emerged as the most important spender within the 5G spectrum public sale, buying virtually half of all of the airwaves offered for greater than Rs 88,000 crore, and was additionally the one one to have acquired spectrum within the premium 700 MHz band. Airtel, shelled out Rs 43,084 crore to accumulate a complete of 19.8 GHz of spectrum within the 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz bands. Vi spent Rs 18,799 crore and bid for sure medium and excessive frequency bands. Adani Data Networks acquired spectrum solely within the 26 GHz band and spent Rs 212 crore.

In an earnings name final week, Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO, Bharti Airtel had mentioned that the corporate plans to launch 5G providers beginning August and, by 2024, is anticipating to cowl massive components of the nation, together with in rural areas. The firm has ready detailed community roll-out plans for five,000 cities in India, he mentioned.