Singtel JV Bharti Airtel secures 5G spectrum in India for 20 years

BHARTI Airtel, a joint venture (JV) company of Singtel, has secured 5G spectrum in India for a sum of 430.8 billion rupees (S$7.5 billion) and duration of 20 years, it said in a Monday (Aug 1) press statement.

In the latest auction by the Indian government’s Department of Telecom, Airtel acquired 19,800 MHz of spectrum, with a pan-Indian footprint of 3.5 GHz and 26 GHz bands. With this, Airtel said that it will not need to spend any material sum on spectrum for “many years to come”.

The acquisition has also enabled Airtel to “drastically” reduce the payout towards spectrum usage charge (SUC) and eliminate the adverse SUC arbitrage, as opposed to new entrants, the company said.

Airtel sees itself as “well-positioned to usher in the 5G revolution in India”. It plans to launch 5G services in every part of the country, starting with key cities. It is also eyeing industrial use cases to strengthen its position in the B2B (business-to-business) market.

“This spectrum acquisition at the latest auction has been a part of a deliberate strategy to buy the best spectrum assets at a substantially lower relative cost compared to our competition,” said Gopal Vittal, managing director and CEO of Airtel.