Bharti Airtel, the country’s largest telecom operator by subscribers and revenue, has sought “immediate” allocation of spectrum it had won during the February auctions.
The GSM operator has requested for an immediate allocation or earmarking of 1800 MHz spectrum in Delhi and Kolkata circles.
The company has also sought continuation of existing 900 MHz band in these two circles for another six months for “smooth migration”. The continuation is being sought from the date of earmarking of 1800 MHz band, Bharti Airtel said in a letter to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), a copy of which has been seen by Business Line .
In September, nearly six months after the auctions were concluded in February, DoT had issued a Letter of Intent (LoI) to Airtel for allotment of 1800 MHz radio waves across 15 circles.
But even after one month of issuing the LoI, the actual allocation of spectrum is yet to happen. Bharti Airtel has about 10.4 million subscribers in Delhi and 3.9 million users in Kolkata.
Last week, Vodafone India, a subsidiary of British telecom major Vodafone Group, had also made a similar request.
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