Reliance Jio Infocomm-owned spectrum footprint increases by 55 pc to 1,717 MHZ

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) on Tuesday announced the successful acquisition of the right to use spectrum in all 22 circles across India in the recently concluded spectrum auctions conducted by Department of Telecommunications, Government of India.

Through this acquisition, RJIL's total owned spectrum footprint has increased significantly, by 55 per cent, to 1,717 MHz (uplink+ downlink).

In a release, RJIL said it has a balanced spectrum for LTE services and future upgradation to 5G.

"RJIL has the highest amount of sub-GHz spectrum with 2X10 MHz contiguous spectrum in most circles. It also has at least 2X10 MHz in 1800 MHz band and 40 MHz in 2300 MHz band in each of the 22 circles. RJIL has achieved complete spectrum derisking, with average life of owned spectrum of 15.5 years,"the release said.

According the RJIL, it has aquired the spectrum in the "most cost efficient manner" with an effective cost of Rs 60.8 crore per MHz.

"With the enhanced spectrum footprint, especially contiguous spectrum, and pan-India infrastructure deployed, RJIL has enhanced network capacity to service its existing users as well as hundreds of millions of more subscribers on its network," the company said.

Notably, the acquired spectrum can be utilised for transition to 5G services at the appropriate time, where Jio has developed its own 5G stack.

Talking about the aquisation, the Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh D Amb, said, "Jio has revolutionised the digital landscape of India with the country becoming the fastest adopter of Digital Life. We want to ensure that we keep on enhancing experiences, not only for our existing customers, but also for the next 300 million users that will move to digital services. With our increased spectrum footprint, we are ready to further expand the digital footprint in India as well as get ourselves ready for the imminent 5G rollout."

To use this technology agnostic spectrum for a period of 20 years, RJIL will have to make the total payment of Rs 57,123 crore. Out of the total payment, for the frequency band 800 MHz, upfront payment would be Rs 8,623 crore, and deferred payment will Rs 25,868 crore.

For 1800 MHz frequency band upfront payment would be Rs 6,231 crore, and deferred payment will Rs 6,231 crore, and for 2300 MHz frequency band upfront payment would be Rs 5,085 crore, and deferred payment will Rs 5,085 crore.

The company said that as per terms of the spectrum auction, the deferred payments have to be made over a period of 18 years (2 year moratorium plus 16 year repayment period), with interest computed at 7.3 per cent per annum.

( With inputs from ANI )