Telcos’ SUC payments to plunge from July-Sep quarter

Kolkata: Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea’s quarterly payouts towards spectrum usage charges (SUC) are estimated to plunge by around 74%, 81% and 65% to around Rs 197 crore, Rs 145.3 crore and Rs 123.3 crore, post the recently concluded 5G airwaves sale, say analysts.

This is since airwaves acquired in the recent 5G sale and future auctions won’t attract any spectrum charges. So, if a telco has bought a huge amount of 5G airwaves that attract zero SUC, its overall payout drops sharply.

Jio and Airtel have boosted their overall spectrum holdings by buying pan-India 5G airwaves in the mid (3.3-3.5GHz) and high bands (26 GHz), while Vi has bought the same in its 17 priority circles in the recent auction. Jio was also the sole buyer of the pricey but super-efficient 700 MHz band 5G spectrum, pan-India.