Reliance Jio announced acquisition of spectrum in the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2300 MHz bands during the 2021 spectrum auctions for Rs 57,123 crore or $7.78 billion.
Through this acquisition, Jio’s total owned spectrum footprint has increased significantly, by 55 percent, to 1,717 MHz (uplink+ downlink).
Reliance Jio, the #1 telecom operator in India, said it has the highest amount of sub-GHz spectrum with 2X10 MHz contiguous spectrum in most circles. It also has at least 2X10 MHz in 1800 MHz band and 40 MHz in 2300 MHz band in each of the 22 circles.
Reliance Jio has achieved complete spectrum derisking, with average life of owned spectrum of 15.5 years.
Reliance Jio said its spectrum has been acquired in the most cost efficient manner with an effective cost of Rs 60.8 crore per MHz.
| Frequency Band | Upfront Payment | Deferred Payment | Total Payment |
| 800 MHz | 8,623 | 25,868 | 34,491 |
| 1800 MHz | 6,231 | 6,231 | 12,461 |
| 2300 MHz | 5,085 | 5,085 | 10,170 |
| Total | 19,939 | 37,184 | 57,123 |
(In Rs crore)
Reliance Jio, the all-India 4G service provider, has enhanced network capacity to service its existing users as well as hundreds of millions of more subscribers on its network with the enhanced spectrum footprint, especially contiguous spectrum, and pan-India infrastructure deployed.
Reliance Jio said it can use the spectrum for transition to 5G services at the appropriate time, where Jio has developed its own 5G stack.
Mukesh D Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, said: “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.”
