Vodafone India pays Rs 10,100 crore to DoT for spectrum buys

NEW DELHI: The country's second-largest telecom operator Vodafone India has made a payment of over Rs 10,100 crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT) towards the purchase of the airwaves.

The company had acquired spectrum in all its key telecom circles in across 1800, 2100 and 2500 MHz bands for a total cost of 20,280 crore (€2.74 billion) in the recently concluded spectrum auction.Of the total, Rs 10,140 crore was to be paid upfront.

For this, telecom operator has paid over Rs 10,100 crore through deferred payment and also submitted a financial bank guarantee of Rs 1,900 crore.

The new spectrum significantly enhances the coverage, capacity and speed of Vodafone India’s 4G data services in its key circles, complementing existing high-quality 2G and 3G voice and data capabilities.

“Vodafone India successfully acquired a total of 2 x 82.6 MHz FDD and 200 MHz TDD spectrum in the auction, providing high-capacity, multi-band 4G capability operating across the 1800, 2100 and 2500 MHz bands,” the company had said in s statement.

Vodafone India has 17 circles with 4G capability, covering 90% of the company’s total revenues and 94% of mobile data revenues.

“Vodafone’s investment totals Rs 202.8 billion (€2.74 billion) of which INR 101.4 billion (€1.36 billion) is payable up-front. The spectrum acquired has a 20-year term,” the company had said.

Vodafone India has the largest voice and data traffic usage within the Vodafone Group and has more than 200 million customers. At 30 June 2016, Vodafone India had 69.7 million data users, of which 32.3 million use 3G/4G.