All four businesses that purchased spectrum in the recently finished auction have received demand notices from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) requiring them to provide payments by August 16. The telcos have the choice of making 20 equal annual payments. The telecom companies may also opt to make a partial advance payment (which may be multiple full years with a minimum of two years) or the full sum. Reliance Jio’s first tranche would be Rs 7,864 crore, while Bharti Airtel’s would be Rs 3,848 crore if the companies choose to pay in 20 equal instalments. According to the notices posted on the DoT website on Saturday, Vodafone Idea’s first instalment is worth Rs 1,679 crore, while Adani Data Networks, a new competitor, must pay Rs 18.94 crore. However, it is anticipated that the Adani group company will pay the entire 212 crore rupee bid amount.
Specifics regarding the payment
With a bid of Rs 88,078 crore, market leader Jio was the highest bidder in the 5G airwave auctions, which closed on Monday. Airtel and Vodafone Idea each purchased airwaves for Rs 43,084 crore and Rs 18,799 crore, respectively. The DoT told the firms when issuing the demand notices that in the frequency range 25.5-27 GHz, a keep-out zone of 2.7 km radius may need to be given from a place in Gujarat and the Andaman & Nicobar islands that may be defined in the future. As a result, the corporations might be forced to move their transmitters as needed, in which case a pro-rata reduction in the overall payment responsibility will be permitted, effective as of the later date of such exclusion or the date of transmitter relocation. The DoT has notified about spectrum availability in all the blocks in the different bands obtained by the corporations, in addition to increasing the demand for making payments. The enterprises have been informed that the availability of the spectrum in some blocks is not total. The department’s effort to reorganise or harmonise the spectrum has just been finished, according to telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. The seven-day auction that ended on Monday brought in Rs 150,173 crore for the government from the sale of 51,236 MHz. It has sold 72,098 MHz worth of airwaves in total. The government anticipates that 5G services will be gradually introduced starting in September or October, with full pan-India coverage being achieved in two to three years and supported by investments of about Rs 2-3 lakh crore. The first places where 5G networks are likely to go live are metropolises and category A circles with lots of paying customers, then smaller towns and cities.
