Jio, VodaIdea, Airtel make upfront spectrum payments

The telecom department had issued demand notes to the three operators on March 8, and the deadline for making the upfront payment was Thursday.

The sources privy to the development said that Reliance Jio has made an upfront payment of about Rs 15,019 crore, while Bharti Airtel has paid around Rs 6,323 crore as the immediate upfront amount.

Vodafone Idea has paid about Rs 574 crore, as stipulated, they said.

There was no official word from the companies on the payments made.

The auctions held earlier this month raked-in winning bids of over Rs 77,800 crore for 855.6 MHz of spectrum. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’’s Reliance Jio spent the most in the auction, picking up 488.35 MHz spectrum in bands such as 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz for over Rs 57,100 crore.