Jio, Airtel, Voda Idea make Rs 21,916 crore upfront payments for spectrum

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea on Thursday made upfront payments for the spectrum bought in the recently concluded auctions. It is learnt that while Reliance Jio has made a payment of Rs 15,019 crore, Bharti Airtel and Vi paid Rs 6,323 crore and Rs 574 crore, respectively.

 

The telecom department had issued demand notes to the three operators on March 8, and the deadline for making the upfront payment was Thursday. Reliance Jio emerged the highest bidder in the 4G telecom spectrum auction, beating incumbents Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea by a wide margin.

 

The Centre would get Rs 77,815 crore from the two-day auction — one of the shortest in a decade. While the amount has exceeded the government expectation, the total mop-up is far below the Rs 3.92 trillion worth of airwaves put up for sale.

 

The spectrum has been sold across a few preferred bands at the base price. Of the available spectrum of 2308 megahertz, 855.60 megahertz was sold in the auctions. Thirty-seven per cent of spectrum by quantity and 19 per cent by value were sold.