India's Bharti Airtel, unit pay 60 billion rupees to clear 'high-cost' 2024 spectrum dues
Airtel, the country's no.2 telecom firm by user base, has been prepaying high-cost spectrum dues that it and other Indian telecom operators owe the government, following years of high-stakes auctions and aggressive bidding for airwaves. The latest payment has trimmed Airtel's debt pile related to spectrum to 520 billion rupees, bringing down the cost of debt to 7.22%, the company said. Airtel's early payments now total 666.65 billion rupees ($7.78 billion), it said, adding that it has settled liabilities with interest rates of 10%, 9.75%, and 9.3% about seven years before their average maturity dates.