The Indian telco will own 30 megahertz in the 2.3 GHz band once the acquisition if fully completed.
Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel signed an agreement to acquire Tikona Digital Networks’ 4G business for $244 million. The acquisition will allow Bharti Airtel to increase its spectrum holding across India.
Tikona holds 20 megahertz of spectrum in the 2.3 GHz band in five telecom circles: Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh East, UP West, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh. It owns 350 sites and offers fixed-wireless broadband services in these circles.
The spectrum in UP East, UP West and Rajasthan circles will enable Bharti Airtel to complete its pan-India 2.3 GHz footprint.
“Airtel’s continued focus on strengthening its 4G capabilities across multiple spectrum bands will be complemented with the spectrum acquisition from Tikona,” said Gopal Vittal, CEO of Bharti Airtel’s India and South Asia business.
The Indian telco said the acquisition is still subject to regulatory approval and is expected to close within the next two months. Once the acquisition is fully completed, Bharti Airtel will hold a total of 30 megahertz of 2.3 GHz spectrum in 13 circles across the country.
Last month, Bharti Airtel agreed to acquire full control of Telenor’s Indian operation. Under terms of the deal, Airtel, which currently counts more than 269 million customers, will take over Telenor India’s spectrum, licenses and operations, including its employees and customer base of around 44 million connections.
Telenor currently offers service across the circles of Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujurat, Uttar Pradesh East and UP West. It also owns spectrum in Assam.
The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals from the Department of Telecommunications and the Competition Commission of India, but is expected to close within 12 months.
StartHub inaugurates innovation center for Smart Nation projects in Singapore
Singapore operator StarHub recently announced the opening of its 58,000-square-foot innovation center and converged operations center, dubbed Hubtricity.
The new facility acts as a foundation to accelerate service innovation and co-creation with partners and customers. The telco said the new facility will help transform Singapore into a connected smart nation.
The centerpiece at Hubtricity is the converged command cockpit, where StarHub said it can monitor how its fixed, mobile and pay-TV networks and services are performing and understand how customers are using and responding to its service offerings through call-center metrics and social media analytics.
