Bharti Airtel Prepays Rs 8,024 Crore To Telecom Department As Spectrum Dues

The company expects this decision will help improve its cash flows and save on annual interest expenses

The operator aims at rolling out 5G networks and offering the latest mobile broadband services on a national level by December

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Telecom operator Bharti Airtel announced on Monday that it has prepaid Rs 8,024 crore to the Department of Telecom (DoT) to clear its ‘high cost’ deferred liabilities for acquiring spectrum in a 2015 auction. 

“The said installments had an interest rate of 10 per cent and have been prepaid by Airtel, leveraging much lower cost financing available to it,” the operator revealed in its exchange filing. 

The company expects this decision will help improve its cash flows and save on annual interest expenses. It aims at rolling out 5G networks and offering the latest mobile broadband services on a national level by December, reported Business Standard. 

The statement further added, “Airtel continues to enjoy access to a well-diversified sources of capital / financing, allowing it to have enhanced financial flexibility in its capital structure including optimised cost of financing using all opportunities for significant interest savings, like this prepayment”.

Bharti Airtel, India’s second-largest telecom operator, last week announced the success of it’s B2B division (Airtel Business) in becoming the first ICT service provider in the country to connect over 20 million devices through its Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. 

Airtel’s IoT deployment has been quite successful recently. Some of its major wins include a partnership with Secure Meters for deploying 1.3 million smart meters in Bihar on NB-IoT, a deal with Matter Motor Works to power 300,000 bikes and another deal with TP Western Odisha Distribution Limited to deploy 200,000 smart meters in Odisha. 

Commenting on the success and contribution of IoT, Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, Airtel Business (India)’s chief executive officer (CEO) had earlier said, “IoT is a key pillar in India's digital growth journey and, as a brand powering this journey with our future-ready technology solutions for connected devices, we are delighted to achieve this significant milestone of 20 million connected devices on our platform."