Indias Telecom Battle-Jackpot for Airtel

Mumbai Nov 26: The entry of Reliance Jio in telecom sector last year has created a disruption and it has led to intense competition, consolidation, mergers and exit of some operators.

However, this competition has benefited some companies and led to mergers.

Airtel: The company has benefited as it has acquired 4 mobile business since March 2016

March 2016: The company has acquired the Videocon's spectrum in six circles for Rs 4,428 crore and the company has used this spectrum for expansion of 4G services in Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh (East), Uttar Pradesh (West) and Gujarat.

April 2016: Company has acquired Aircel's 2300 Mhz spectrum in eight circles for Rs 3,500 crore.These include Tamil Nadu, Bihar, J&K, West Bengal, Assam, North-East, Andhra Pradesh and Orissa.

February 2017: It announced and signed an agreement to acquire Telenor with no equity and no debt deal.Telenor has operations in Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West), Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Assam.

March 2017: In March 2017, it bought Tikona's 4G spectrum in four circles – Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West), Rajasthan and HP.

Sept 2017: Announced acquisition of Tata Teleservices and company would pay no amount and the spectrum in 19 circles in 1800 Mhz, 800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands and a subscriber base of 40 million.

Currently, there are reports that the company might acquire RCom 4G spectrum also.