Bharti Airtel has acquired Videocon’s spectrum in the 1800 MHz band for Rs 4428 crore across six circles including Bihar, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, UP (East) and UP (West), both companies said in a joint notification to BSE. In addition, both companies have agreed to conclude the transaction and has received all mandatory approvals regarding Spectrum Trading Guidelines. The deal between Airtel and Videocon was originally announced in March after Idea Cellular had called off an earlier deal with Videocon for the same spectrum. In November 2015, Idea had entered into an agreement with Videocon to acquire the rights to use spectrum from Videocon in the 1800 MHz band in two key circles – Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh (West) – for Rs 3310 crore; the agreement was called off by Idea. Airtel acquired Aircel’s spectrum in 8 circles In March Bharti Airtel bought 20 Mhz of spectrum in the 2,300MHz band from Aircel for Rs 3,500 crore, The deal allowed Airtel to offer 4G services in the eight circles of Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Jammu and Kashmir, West Bengal, Assam, the North East, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha. “With the above acquisition, Bharti Airtel will become a pan India 4G operator,” the company added in its statement. Competition from Jio: With Airtel acquiring Videocon’s spectrum in 6 circles, it can now extend 4G services in 19 of the 22 telecom circles it operates in. Reliance Jio has a unified pan India licence, which allows it to operate 4G services in all 22 circles under…
