Telecom operators made upfront payments for spectrum on Thursday with Bharti Airtel depositing ₹6,323 crore, Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJio) making a payment of ₹5,019.84 crore and Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) ₹574.65 crore.
The payments were made to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for the recently concluded spectrum auction, sources close to the development said.
In the shortest spectrum auction since 2013, operators bought airwaves worth ₹77,814.80 crore in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz and 2300 MHz bands on March 2.
RJio bought most spectrum worth ₹57,122.65 crore. RJio bought 488.35 MHz in the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands, while Bharti Airtel picked 355.45 MHz of spectrum amounting to ₹18,698.75 crore. VIL bought 11.8 MHz of airwaves worth ₹1,993.40 crore as the right to use spectrum. A total quantity of 2308.80 MHz spectrum was put for auction, including spectrum expiring by December 2021.