Government Issues Demand Notes To 7 Telecom Operators For Spectrum Purchase

Government issued demand notes to seven telecom operators to make payment in 10 days for the spectrum they bought in the just-concluded auction.

In the five-day spectrum auction that concluded last week, seven telecom companies made commitments of Rs 65,789 crore for buying 964.80 MHz of spectrum in various frequency bands.

The demand note for payment has been issued to all successful bidders via email, sources told PTI.

As per the NIA or the bid document, the operators will have 10 days from the date of issue of demand note to make the payment for successful bid amount. Accordingly, they would have to make the payment by October 20.

Bids were received for 964.80 MHz of spectrum out of 2,354.55 MHz across seven bands put on offer. Even at the end of the auction, nearly 60 percent of the spectrum remained unsold, including the expensive 700 MHz band, which found no takers.

U.K.-based Vodafone's India Ltd. unit was the most aggressive, taking home Rs 20,279 crore worth of spectrum. Bharti Airtel Ltd., the nation's biggest telecom company, bought Rs 14,244 crore worth of spectrum, while Idea Cellular Ltd. put in Rs 12,798 crore of bids.

Newcomer Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. spent Rs 13,672 crore on spectrum. Other operators who bought spectrum included Tata Teleservices Ltd. (about Rs 4,619 crore), Reliance Communications Ltd. (about Rs 65 crore) and Aircel Ltd. (Rs 111 crore).

The demand note that specifies the full amount due from individual operators, also provides a deferred payment alternative with upfront money which works out to about Rs 5,930 crore in case of Reliance Jio; about Rs 6,399 crore for Idea Cellular; about Rs 10,139 crore for Vodafone; about Rs 7,121 crore for Bharti Airtel; about Rs 2,309 crore for Tata Teleservices; about Rs 32.5 crore for Reliance Communications; and about Rs 56 crore for Aircel.