Telcos seek six-year moratorium on new spectrum purchase

Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea have sought a 5-6 year interest-free payment gap or moratorium on the spectrum bought in auctions in 2025 and beyond. Spectrum is leased to operators for a 20-year period, so this means, the operators want that they pay for only 14-15 years in equal, annual installments.

The operators have said in a communication to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) that such a moratorium is needed on spectrum bought in auctions from next year because they have incurred huge capex in rolling out 5G services, which they are yet to monetise. Further, they need to keep on investing in their networks.