Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises on Thursday hailed the government for quickly providing allocation letter for the designated frequency bands, bought from the recently concluded spectrum auction.
“Yesterday (Wednesday) Airtel paid ₹8,312.4 crore towards spectrum dues and was provided the allocation letter for the designated frequency bands within hours. E band allocation was given along with spectrum as promised. No fuss, no follow up, no running around the corridors and no tall claims. This is ease of doing business in its full glory,” Mittal said in a statement.
Airtel bought spectrum worth ₹43,084 crore, secured for 20 years, in the recently held auctions. It acquired 19,867.8 MHz spectrum in 900MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100MHz, 3300MHz and 26GHz frequency bands.
“In my over 30 years of first-hand experience with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), this is first business as it should be. Leadership at work-right at the top and at the helm of telecom. What a change! Change that can transform this nation, power its dreams to be a developed nation,” Mittal added.
‘Prepare for launch’
Meanwhile, Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw urged telcos to prepare for the 5G launch at the earliest. “Spectrum assignment letter issued. Requesting telecom service providers (TSPs) to prepare for 5G launch,” he said through social media platform Koo.
Apart from Airtel, Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio on Wednesday deposited ₹7,864 crore towards dues for the spectrum it acquired recently. Vodafone-Idea also deposited around ₹1,680 crore for a year. Adani Data Networks deposited ₹18 crore for the same. Totally, the DoT received around ₹17,871 crore towards dues for spectrum.
Reliance Jio bought 24,740 MHz of spectrum in the 700MHz, 800MHz, 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2500MHz, 3300MHz and 26GHz worth ₹88,078 crore. Vodafone Idea bought spectrum worth ₹18,799 crore in 1800MHz, 2100MHz, 2500MHz, 3300MHz, 26GHz with a total of 6,288MHz airwaves. Adani bought 400MHz of spectrum in 26GHz worth ₹212 crore. The government had garnered a little more than ₹1.50-lakh crore from the spectrum auction.
Published on
August 18, 2022
