Bharti Airtel Prepays ₹5,985 Crore, Clears 2024 Spectrum Dues

Bharti Airtel Ltd, India's second largest telecom operator, on Wednesday said it has prepaid an additional ₹5,985 crore to the department of telecommunications (DoT), thereby clearing its bill for the spectrum it purchased in 2024.

- Jatin Grover

[e-mail] NEW DELHI:

The telecom operator had acquired spectrum worth ₹6,857 crore in the auction last year.

With this, the telecom operator has prepaid ₹25,981 crore of high-cost spectrum liabilities in fiscal year 2025 (FY25) towards the spectrum acquired in previous auctions. The company has cumulatively prepaid spectrum liabilities of ₹66,665 crore as on date, it said in a release.

Notably, Airtel has cleared all its spectrum liabilities barring spectrum acquired in 2021 and 2022. Excluding the liability on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) front, Airtel has an outstanding spectrum liability of ₹52,000 crore, payable in annual instalments till FY 2042.