Bharti Airtel has announced an agreement with Reliance Jio Infocomm to transfer the ‘Right to Use’ of Airtel’s 800 MHz spectrum in Andhra Pradesh (3.75 MHz), Delhi (1.25 MHz) and Mumbai (2.50 MHz) to Jio. In a statement Airtel said, this agreement is subjected to statutory approvals.
Through this agreement, Airtel will receive a consideration of Rs 1,037.6 crore from Jio for the proposed transfer. In addition, Jio will assume future liabilities of Rs 459 crore relating to the spectrum.
Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India and South Asia), Bharti Airtel said, that the sale of the 800 MHz blocks in these three circles has enabled to unlock value from spectrum that was unutilised. This is aligned to overall network strategy.
Jio said that the trading agreement is in accordance by the Department of Telecommunications spectrum guidelines, which stated that with this development, Reliance Jio will have ‘2X15MHz’ of spectrum in the 800MHz band and ‘2X10MHz’ of spectrum in the 800MHz band in the Mumbai, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi circles respectively, thereby further consolidating its spectrum footprint in these circles.
“With the enhanced spectrum footprint, especially contiguous spectrum, and superior infrastructure deployed, RJIL has further increased its network capacity,” said Jio.