The country's largest private telecom operator Bharti Airtel has paid the highest amount of Rs 1,097.04 crore to the government in terms of licence fee and spectrum usage charge for the quarter ended March 31.
Bharti paid Rs 708.6 crore as licence fee and Rs 388.44 crore as the spectrum charge for the quarter ended March 31 of financial year 2010-11, data compiled by telecom regulator Trai said.
Meanwhile, new players like Etisalat, Unitech Wireless, Loop, STel and Sistema Shyam Teleservices -- who got the spectrum (radio waves) in 2008 -- paid Rs 61.86 crore as the spectrum charge and licence fee to the government.
Bharti was followed by Vodafone Essar, which has paid a combined amount of Rs 719.24 crore for the quarter.
Besides, the two state-run firms BSNL and MTNL have paid a total of Rs 462.11 crore for the spectrum charges and licence fees.
Other private operators included, Tata Teleservices (Rs 292.64 crore), Idea Cellular (Rs 463.65 crore) and Reliance Communications (Rs 262.47 crore).