India’s Telecom Ministry has cleared 4G spectrum trading deal between Bharti Airtel and Aircel, an unnamed official source told PTI. “The spectrum trading deal between Bharti Airtel and Aircel was cleared by the telecom minister on July 4”, the source said. Bharti Airtel declined to comment on the matter.
Back in April, Airtel acquired rights to use 20MHz in 2300band 4G TD spectrumin eight circles from Aircel. The eight circles covered by the agreement are Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, the North-East, Andhra Pradesh, and Orissa. The spectrum acquisition price reached INR 35 billion.
“Airtel was asked to surrender 1.2 Mhz spectrum in Odisha circle for approval as it breached the spectrum cap limit (after taking into account Aircel’s spectrum). The company has surrendered 1.2 MHz spectrum in 1800 MHz before the deal was cleared”, the source also said.
