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India’s biggest operator to pay INR44.3 billion for 1800-MHz frequencies in six circles.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday struck a 44.28 billion rupee (€588.92 million) deal to buy 1800-MHz spectrum from Videocon.
The announcement came after rival Idea Cellular terminated an earlier agreement to acquire some of Videocon’s 1800-MHz spectrum for INR33.1 billion.
In a Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) filing, Bharti Airtel said it has agreed to purchase 2×5 MHz of 1800-MHz spectrum held by Videocon in six telecom circles: Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West), and Gujarat. The licences are valid up to 18 December 2032.
When Idea announced its deal with Videocon in November 2015, it covered 1800-MHz spectrum in Uttar Pradesh (West) and Gujarat.
In a BSE filing of its own, Idea said the two companies have agreed to terminate their deal "by mutual written consent."
No further explanation was given, but Idea did go on to highlight that it is pushing ahead with the deployment of its LTE network, which is now live in 10 circles.
Meanwhile, the deal between Videocon and Bharti Airtel comes almost a year after the latter won 1800-MHz spectrum in six other telecom circles at an auction at which it also picked up frequencies in the 900 MHz, and 2.1 GHz bands. It paid INR291.3 billion in total.
