Idea Cellular commits the highest in spectrum auction
26 Mar 2015
Idea Cellular, the country's third-largest operator by subscribers, has committed to paying Rs30,306 crore for spectrum, making it the highest in this year's auction.
Idea is followed by Bharti Airtel, with the New Delhi-based telco shelling out Rs29,301 crore.
Vodafone India, the Indian unit of British telecom major Vodafone Group, will shell out Rs25,959 crore, while Reliance Jio Infocomm will pay Rs10,077 crore, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said.
The outgo for Tata Teleservices, which straddles both CDMA and GSM services, would be about Rs7,851 crore and for Anil Ambani's Reliance Communication, it is Rs4,299 crore.
GSM operator Aircel would have to shell out Rs2,250 crore, he said.
The frequencies bought by these companies were not immediately known.
The government expects to receive about Rs28,872 crore in initial payments, which the winning bidders have to make by 4 April. The 800 Mhz spectrum worth Rs9,710 crore at the base price was sold at premium price of Rs17,158.79 crore.
The 3G spectrum and 1800 MHz spectrum contributed Rs10,115.41 crore and Rs9,636.17 crore, respectively, against their value of Rs9,620 crore and Rs8,292.4 crore.