Imminent merger: Vodafone, Idea shell out spectrum contributions to DoT

Vodafone, Idea Disburse Spectrum Rights to DoT

The $ 23 Billion Idea Cellular and Vodafone India Merger Will Soon Obtain the Final Approval of the Telecommunications Department (DoT) That Both Companies Have Paid Rs 7,268 crore royalties for spectrum fees. "Vodafone and Idea have paid the fees under their heads, which is being processed at DoT," an official source said.

Vodafone is due to Rs 3.926 crore relates to the entrance fee and the auction price up to 4.4 Mhz, which must be paid in the event that a company goes for a M & A. R $ 3,322-Idea's crore is related to the Single Spectrum Charge (OTSC) for spectrum maintained beyond 4.4 Mhz.

Idea Cellular had previously obtained a court order to suspend payment, but the merger and acquisition guidelines indicate that in the event of judicial intervention, companies will have to provide a bank guarantee of this amount . Sources had previously said that the companies had decided to pay first and then to challenge, rather than challenge the court payment, because the latter move would delay the merger. Earlier this month, the DoT had granted conditional approval to the merger pending payment.

The merged entity will be the country's largest telecommunications operator with a total business turnover of more than Rs 80,000 crore, 437 million customers, 35% subscriber market share and income market share of 39%. The combined debt of Vodafone-Idea will be Rs 1.07 crore lakh, which according to a report by Bank of America Merrill Lynch would limit their capital to about Rs 13,000-14,000 crore for the next two years. On the other hand, Bharti Airtel's annual investments amount to about Rs 24,000 crore.

Once the merger is complete, the two sites will remove the overlapping sites, which would result in annual savings of over 50,000 Rs. About 2,000 crores. The merged entity will contain 1850 MHz of spectrum, which will include 1645 Mhz of liberalized spectrum capable of creating substantial mobile data capacity, using the broadest broadband spectrum portfolio with 34 3G operators and 129 4G operators.