Bharti Airtel Ltd. spent the most on retaining and acquiring new spectrum in the latest auction of airwaves concluded on Wednesday after seven rounds of bids. The auction raked in ₹11,340.78 crore.
Airtel bid a total of ₹6,856.76 crore in the auction, whereas Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. only bid ₹973.62 crore, while Vodafone Idea Ltd. (VIL) bid ₹3,510.40 crore. The vast difference is largely due to Airtel renewing spectrum due to expire this year. Much of the other airwaves were unsold in 2022.
“As auction for 5G spectrum was held recently and 5G monetization is still in progress, no bidding took place in 800MHz, 2300MHz, 3300MHz and 26GHz bands,” the Department of Telecommunications said in a statement. “A total of 141.4MHz (26.5%) was sold from the balance 533.6 MHz Spectrum” left over from the 2022 auctions, the government added. The 2022 auction was nine times larger in terms of quantum of spectrum put to sale.
The bidding took place in the 900MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz and 2500 MHz bands; Jio showed modest interest in the auction, picking up 14.4MHz worth spectrum, and VIL picked up 30MHz. The total value of the fresh spectrum purchased by the three telcos was ₹6,164.88 crore.
Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal said in a statement that the firm was acquiring airwaves “judiciously” and that its acquisitions would improve indoor coverage. VIL said, “In addition to renewal of 900 MHz spectrum in UP West and West Bengal circles, [the] Company has also enhanced its 900 MHz spectrum holding in 7 circles, namely Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP East and Kolkata, enabling it to dedicate adequate 900 MHz band spectrum for 4G thereby enhancing the experience of its 4G customers in these large markets.”
Outside of Chennai, Vi network experience will get better in the rest of Tamil Nadu and in Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, “large parts of Karnataka,” and eastern Uttar Pradesh, VIL added.
“At these muted participation levels, no material adverse impact on the balance sheet of the industry is expected,” Ankit Jain, vice president, corporate ratings at ICRA Ltd. said. “The debt levels which stood at ₹6.4 lakh crore as on March 31, 2024 are expected to moderate to around ₹6.2-6.3 lakh crore as on March 31, 2025, despite the addition of the deferred liabilities, given the expected improvement in profit generation.”
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