Airtel completes acquisition of Videocon spectrum

Indian cellco Bharti Airtel has completed its acquisition of spectrum in the 1800MHz band in six circles from Videocon Telecommunications Ltd (VTL). Airtel, India’s largest mobile provider by subscribers, paid INR44.28 billion (USD653.42 million) for 2×5MHz blocks in Bihar, Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh East and Uttar Pradesh West. The pair agreed the transaction in March this year, and confirmed that all necessary approvals had been received and all conditions had been met by 24 May. Previously, in November 2015 VTL had agreed to sell its airwaves in two of the circles (Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh West) to Idea Cellular for INR33.1 billion, but the deal fell through in March 2016.