Airtel Shares Surge After Advance Payments to DoT for 5G Spectrum Purchase

The share price of telecom service provider Bharti Airtel surged on Thursday after the company made advance payments for 5G spectrum purchase. Bharti Airtel share price surged 1.59 percent to close at Rs. 733.25 on the BSE on Thursday. The scrip touched a high of Rs. 735.70 in the intra-day.

Bharti Airtel share price has gained 4.5 percent in the past two trading sessions.

The company's shares rose sharply after it made advance payments for the 5G spectrum. Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said it has paid Rs. 8,312.4 crore to the Department of Telecom (Government of India) towards dues for spectrum acquired in the recently concluded 5G auctions.

Airtel has paid 4 years of 2022 spectrum dues upfront. The company believes that this upfront payment coupled with the moratorium on spectrum dues and AGR related payments for four years will free up future cash flows and allow Airtel to dedicate resources to single-mindedly concentrate on the 5G rollout.

Over the last year, Airtel has also cleared Rs. 24,333.7 crore of its deferred spectrum liabilities much ahead of scheduled maturities.

The government announced that the telecom operator has been allocated the spectrum within a few hours of making the payments.

Bharti Enterprises Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal praised the government for a quick 5G spectrum allocation. "No fuss, no follow up, no running around the corridors and no tall claims. This is ease of doing business at work in its full glory. In my over 30 years of first-hand experience with the DoT (Department of Telecommunications), this is a first! Business as it should be," Mittal said in a statement.