Airtel completes spectrum deal with Aircel in seven circles

Bharti Airtel said it had successfully concluded the transaction for acquiring rights to use 20 MHz 2300 Band BWA (broadband wireless access) spectrum from Aircel.

The deal makes Airtel the second largest holder of 4G spectrum in 2300 MHz band after Reliance Jio Infocomm, which holds the 4G spectrum in all 22 circles in the country.

“The proposed transaction has been successfully concluded for the Odisha circle following the receipt of all necessary approvals and satisfying all the conditions (including conditions stated in the Spectrum Trading Guidelines),” Airtel said in a statement in a filing to the BSE. With this, the country’s largest telecom services provider has completed transaction in seven out of eight circles, including Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, North East and Odisha, it said. The spectrum trading deal related to the Andhra Pradesh circle is yet to complete.

For the Odisha circle, Airtel had to surrender 1.2 MHz spectrum, worth around ₹38 crore, for approval as it breached the spectrum limit after taking into account Aircel’s spectrum.

The company had entered into the ₹3,500 crore deal to acquire Aircel’s 4G spectrum in eight telecom circles in Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, North East, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.

Meanwhile, the Department of Telecom has put all spectrum trading, sharing and liberalisation deals on hold till the end of the mega auction scheduled to start from September 29.

In another development, Airtel on Thursday launched 4G services in Kharagpur — the second city in West Bengal to have 4G services.

It has been rolled out using dual spectrum bands of 2,300 MHz (TD LTE) and 1,800 MHz (FD LTE). The combination of TD LTE and FD LTE ensures higher network capacity and superior customer experience, the company said.

Kolkata was the first city to launch 4G services in April 2012.

Airtel 4G is available to customers across a range of smart devices, including mobile phones (SIM cards), 4G hotspots and dongles.

Shares of Airtel closed at ₹ 346.20 on the BSE on Thursday, up 0.12 per cent from the previous close.