Airtel buys Aircel’s 4G spectrum in AP

Bharti Airtel said that it has completed the acquisition of Maxis-controlled Aircel’s 4G airwaves in Andhra Pradesh. With this, the company has completed the deal of acquiring 4G airwaves in the 2300 Mhz band from Aircel in Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, North East, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh for an amount of Rs 3,500 crore.

Ahead of the launch of 4G services by Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio, Airtel has been aggressively increasing its spectrum portfolio to become a pan-India data player. In March, Bharti Airtel announced a deal to buy the entire spectrum of Videocon Telecommunications in the 1,800-MHz band for Rs 4,428 crore. After this deal, Bharti’s spectrum holdings will reach 770 MHz, against Reliance Jio’s 640 MHz, according to industry estimates. Airtel has 18 % of the total airwaves available in the country.

The company informed BSE,“With reference to the earlier letter dated April 08, 2016, July 10, 2016 and August 11, 2016 with respect to the acquisition of rights to use 20 MHz of spectrum in 2300 Band (BWA) from Aircel, Bharti Airtel Ltd has now informed BSE that the proposed transaction has been successfully concluded for Andhra Pradesh circle following the receipt of all necessary approvals and satisfying all the conditions (including conditions stated in the Spectrum Trading Guidelines).”

With this, the company has completed the transaction in all 8 circles namely Tamil Nadu (including Chennai); Bihar, Jammu & Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, North East, Odisha and Andhra Pradesh.