The Department of Telecom (DoT) has sent notices to the telecom companies demanding Rs 21,919 crore as upfront paymentto three telecom giants for the spectrum auction.
Name of companies and dues
The DoT sought Rs 15,019.84 crore from Jio, Rs 6323.98 crore from Airtel, and Rs 574.65 from Vodafone Idea as upfront payment.
About spectrum deal
The government managed to sell 855.60 megahertz (MHz) of the spectrum which is 37 percent of the offered 2308.80 MHz by volume, and 19 percent by value as compared to the last auction held in 2016 where, of the 2,354.75MHz auctioned, about 41 percent or 964.80MHz was acquired in terms of quantity and 12 percent or Rs 65,789 crore by value.
In the current auction, Reliance Jio emerged as the biggest bidder, acquiring 488.35 MHz for Rs 57,122.65 crore, followed by Bharti Airtel which took 355.45 MHz for Rs 18,698.75 crore, and Vodafone Idea with 11.80 MHz for Rs 1,993.40 crore.
Spectrum Procedure
As a standard procedure for the spectrum auction, the buyers had an option to pay upfront 50 percent of the final bid for 1,800, 2,100, 2,300, and 2,500MHz bands, and the remaining amount can be paid in equated 16 installments over a period of two years at the interest rate of 7.3 percent, following the two years moratorium.
For 700, 800, and 900MHz bands, the upfront amount was 25 percent of the successful bid.
Adjusted Gross Revenue
The buyers were also required to pay three percent of the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) excluding wireline services as spectrum usage charges for the spectrum won through this auction.
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