Auctioned spectrum assigned to successful bidders: J.S. Deepak
In the spectrum auction that concluded on 6 October, seven telecom companies made commitments of Rs65,789 crore for buying 964.80 MHz in various frequency bands
New Delhi: Government has assigned the radio waves sold in the recent auction to telecom companies, ahead of the timeline for allocating them within a month of receipt of payment from successful bidders. “The spectrum which was sold in the recent auction, was harmonized and assigned to successful bidders on 9-10 November, much before the one month timeline committed by us," telecom secretary J.S. Deepak said.
In the spectrum auction that concluded on 6 October, seven telecom companies made commitments of Rs65,789 crore for buying 964.80 MHz in various frequency bands, as against 2,354.55 MHz radio waves put on the block.
UK-based Vodafone’s India unit was the most aggressive, taking home Rs20,279 crore worth of spectrum. Bharti Airtel Ltd, the nation’s biggest telecom company, bought Rs14,244 crore worth of spectrum, while Idea Cellular Ltd put in Rs12,798 crore of bids. Newcomer Reliance Jio spent Rs13,672 crore on spectrum buying. Other operators who bought spectrum included Tata Teleservices Ltd (about Rs4,619 crore), Reliance Communications (RCom) (about Rs65 crore) and Aircel (Rs111 crore).
Post the auctions, in line with the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) stated rules, all the seven operators made upfront payments between 19-20 October.
Vodafone and Tata Teleservices deposited upfront payments of Rs10,139 crore and Rs2,309 crore, respectively.
Bharti Airtel paid about Rs7,121 crore under the deferred payment option along with another Rs445 crore as full payment towards spectrum it bought in circles of Rajasthan and the North-east. Idea Cellular paid Rs6,398 crore, Reliance Jio Rs5,930 crore, Aircel Rs55 crore and RCom Rs32 crore as deferred payment. All these companies had submitted financial bank guarantees as well.
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