Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) has acquired the right to use spectrum in all 22 circles across India in the recently concluded spectrum auctions conducted by the Department of Telecommunications, government of India.
The company bought 133.75 MHz spectrum in 800 MHz band, 74.60 MHz in 1,800 MHz band and 280 MHz in 2,300 MHz band.
The company has a very well-balanced spectrum for LTE services and future upgradation to 5G technology. Through this acquisition, RJIL’s total owned spectrum footprint has increased significantly by 55 percent to 1,717 MHz (uplink + downlink).
The company has the highest amount of sub-GHz spectrum with two x 10 MHz contiguous spectrum in most circles. It also has at least two x 10 MHz in 1,800 MHz band and 40 MHz in 2,300 MHz band in each of the 22 circles.
RJIL has achieved complete spectrum derisking with average life of owned spectrum of 15.5 years. The spectrum has been acquired in the most cost-efficient manner with an effective cost of Rs 60.8 crore per MHz.
With the enhanced spectrum footprint, especially contiguous spectrum, and pan-India infrastructure deployed, RJIL has enhanced network capacity to service its existing users as well as hundreds of millions of more subscribers on its network.
The acquired spectrum can be utilised for transition to 5G services at the appropriate time, where Jio has developed its own 5G stack.
The payment to be made for the right to use this technology agnostic spectrum for a period of 20 years is Rs 57,123 crore.
The company will make an upfront payment of Rs 19,939 crore and a deferred payment of Rs 37,184 crore for its latest spectrum acquisition. The amounts are provisional, subject to DOT confirmation.
As per terms of the spectrum auction, the deferred payments have to be made over a period of 18 years i.e. two year moratorium plus 16 year repayment period, with interest computed at 7.3 percent per annum.