Bharti Airtel acquires Aircel’s 4G spectrum in eight circles

Bharti Airtel (BAL) acquired 4G spectrum rights from Aircel in eight circles for Rs 3500 crore. The company entered into definitive agreements with its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom on April 8. It will acquire rights to use 20 MHz 2300 Band 4G TD spectrum for all of these circles. The circles include Tamil Nadu, Bihar, J&K, West Bengal, North East Andhra Pradesh, Odisha, Chennai and Assam.

Acquisition of all the circles will give push up to BAL and it becomes first telecom operator to have pan-India 4G spectrum. Aircel had won the spectrum in a government auction and is entitled to hold it till September 20, 2030. According to the company’s management, the deal will give tough competition to its peers like Reliance Jio.

During March month, BAL acquired Videocon's 4G spectrum in the 1800 Mhz band in six circles for Rs 4428 crore. The six circles where the company gets access to 1800 MHz spectrum are Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West) and Gujarat. The spectrum is valid up to December 18, 2032.

On financial front, BAL’s revenue increased by 1.05 per cent sequentially to Rs 24103 crore in Q3FY16 as compared to Rs 23852 crore. On the operational front EBITDA increased by 2.56 per cent to Rs 8461.2 crore Q-O-Q (quarter on quarter) compared to Rs 8,250.2 crore in the September quarter. Sequentially margins remained flat at 35 per cent. Profits after tax saw a decline of 26.65 per cent to Rs 1117 crore in Q3FY16, due to exceptional loss of Rs 340.5 crore during the quarter against a gain of Rs 659.6 crore in the preceding quarter. The net debt stood at Rs 78816 crore as of Q3FY16.

On Friday, the share price of BAL increased by 0.78 per cent to Rs 334.3 on bourses.

BAL is a provider of range of telecommunication services. The company’s product offerings in India include 2G, 3G and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high-speed digital subscriber line (DSL) broadband, Internet Protocol Television (IPTV), DTH and enterprise services. It operates in segments viz. Mobile Services, Telemedia Services and Airtel business. The Mobile Services segment offers voice and data telecom services provided through wireless technology in India; Telemedia Services comprise voice and data communications based on fixed network and broadband technology, and the Airtel Business covers end-to-end telecom solutions provided to Indian and global corporations.