Airtel to acquire Tikona 4G business; add 2300Mhz spectrum in five circles

Bharti Airtel announced that it will acquire Tikona, Indian internet service provider’s 4G business, Aseem Manchanda reported on Thursday.

The telecom major will also acquire the digital network’s broadband wireless access spectrum and 350 sites, an emailed statement by the company said.

Tikona currently has 20MHz spectrum in 2300 MHz band in Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West), Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh circles.

Manchanda said that the deal was valued at Rs 1,600 crore.

After the deal, the company said that Airtel will have 30 MHz in 2300 MHz band in 13 circles.

"We believe that combining our capacities in TD-LTE and FD-LTE will further bolster our network, and help us provide unmatched high-speed wireless broadband experience to our customers," said Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel.

The acquisition is still subject to regulatory approvals.

Speaking about the acquisition plans, Rishi Tejpal, Principal Research Analyst, Gartner’s said, "Airtel’s acquisition of Tikona’s 4G spectrum fills the gap that it had in the TDD-LTE band mainly in UP East, UP West and Rajasthan circles. With this acquisition Airtel will have nationwide TDD-LTE spectrum."

By the end of February, Airtel had acquired Telenor and with it garnered 43MHz of 1800MHz spectrum which analysts from Fitch Ratings claimed to be the ‘primary reason’ for the acquisition other than subscriber base.

"Combined with FDD-LTE this additional spectrum holding will help Airtel to be future ready for the surging data demands on 4G. In addition, this will also help Airtel to improve the quality of service with additional spectrum," Tejpal added.