Reliance Industries (RIL) rose 1.22% to Rs 2132 after the company said that its telecom unit Reliance Jio has successfully acquired the right to use spectrum in all 22 circles across India.
In a BSE filing made after market hours on Tuesday (2 March 2021), RIL said that Reliance Jio Infocomm, a subsidiary of the company, had successfully acquired the right to use spectrum in all 22 circles across India in the recently concluded spectrum auctions conducted by Department of Telecommunications, Government of India.
RIL said that the payment to be made for the right to use this technology agnostic spectrum for a period of 20 years is Rs 57,123 crore. For the spectrum bought, Jio will have to make an upfront payment of Rs 19,939 crore and deferred payment of Rs 37,184 crore. As per terms of the spectrum auction, the deferred payments have to be made over a period of 18 years (2 year moratorium plus 16 year repayment period), with interest computed at 7.3% per annum.
The conglomerate said that Jio has very well-balanced spectrum for LTE Services and future upgradation to 5G Technology. Jio has achieved complete spectrum derisking with average validity of owned spectrum at 15.5 years.
With these acquisitions, Jio's total owned spectrum footprint has increased significantly, by 55%, to 1,717 MHz (uplink+ downlink). The spectrum has been acquired at an effective cost of Rs 60.8 crore per MHz. The acquired spectrum can be utilised for transition to 5G services at the appropriate time, where Jio has developed its own 5G stack, it added.
Mukesh D Ambani, chairman, Reliance Industries, said, "Jio has revolutionised the digital landscape of India with the country becoming the fastest adopter of Digital Life. We want to ensure that we keep on enhancing experiences, not only for our existing customers, but also for the next 300 million users that will move to digital services. With our increased spectrum footprint, we are ready to further expand the digital footprint in India as well as get ourselves ready for the imminent 5G rollout."
RIL is India's largest private sector company. Its activities span hydrocarbon exploration and production, petroleum refining and marketing, petrochemicals, retail and digital services.
On a consolidated basis, RIL reported 12.5% rise in net profit to Rs 13,101 crore on 23.12% decline in net sales to Rs 117,860 crore in Q3 December 2020 over Q3 December 2019.
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