ADANIENT

The spectrum trading assumes significance as the Adani group, which acquired the spectrum for ₹212 crore in a 2022 auction, was not able to deploy it for connectivity in its ports, airports, logistics, power plants, etc. “Airtel has taken over the payment obligation from Adani. Now onwards, Airtel will pay the annual amount to DoT in August every year,” an industry executive said, asking not to be identified. The 26GHz band is crucial for enterprise connectivity and would be required for telecom operators to build capacity going forward to handle the increase in traffic on 5G, analysts said, adding that the band has less device ecosystem and is not being put to use widely. Telecom operators Jio and Airtel have been using some 26GHz spectrum band in rolling out the fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband services as well.