The government has received a total upfront payment of Rs 323.77 billion from telecom operators for the spectrum sold in the recently concluded spectrum auctions. This comes after Bharti Airtel paid the entire sum for the Rajasthan and North East circles, thereby paying Rs 113.74 billion, while the upfront amount due from it was Rs 78.32 billion.

According to the auction guidelines, the operators have to pay 25 per cent or 33 per cent of the winning bid amounts (depending on the spectrum bands) within 10 days and the balance in 10 equal installments after a two-year moratorium. As per the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Aircel has paid Rs 7.42 billion, Idea Cellular Rs 77.34 billion, Reliance Communications Rs 11.04 billion, RJIL Rs 25.91 billion, Tata Teleservices Limited Rs 20.13 billion and Vodafone Rs 68.17 billion.

Earlier, telecom operators including bidders, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL), Vodafone India and Idea Cellular had paid about Rs 108.08 billion towards upfront payments till March 31, 2014.  Thereafter, the operators paid the entire upfront payment of about Rs 288.72 billion to the government by April 9, 2015.