Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. will acquire Bharti Airtel Ltd.'s spectrum in three telecom circles as it looks to expand its network capacity.
India's newest mobile operator has purchased the rights to use a total of 7.5 MHz spectrum under 800 MHz band—3.75 MHz in Andhra Pradesh, 2.5 MHz in Mumbai and 1.25 MHz in Delhi, it said in an exchange filing. It will pay Bharti Airtel a total of Rs 1,497 crore, including an associated deferred payment liability of Rs 459 crore.
Following the trading, Reliance Jio will have doubled its spectrum in the Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi circles to 30 MHz, 20 Mhz and 20 MHz, respectively.
Bharti Airtel received the spectrum following its acquisition of Tata Teleservices Ltd.. The acquisition will aid Reliance Jio as it has operations in the same band.
Reliance Jio was also the most aggressive bidder in the recently concluded spectrum auction, placing bids for 488.53 MHz of spectrum worth Rs 57,122.65 crore. Bharti Airtel had placed bids for 355.45 MHz spectrum worth Rs 18,698.75 crore.
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