Jio, Vodafone Idea make upfront payments for spectrum, says report

Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have paid Rs 15,019.84 crore and Rs 574.65 crore upfront to the telecom department for the spectrum bought in a government-held auction, the Economic Times reported Thursday.

Bharti Airtel's payment is awaited. The government sold airwaves worth Rs 77,814 crore in 4G spectrum auction that ended on March 2.

Business Standard reported two weeks ago that Reliance Jio had emerged the highest bidder in the auction, beating Airtel and Vodafone Idea by a wide margin. The government 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.

Spectrum was across a few preferred bands at the base price. Jio has bagged more than 50 per cent of the total quantum of airwaves sold by paying Rs 57,122.65 crore. Of the 855.6 megahertz of spectrum sold, Jio has got 488 megahertz.