Bharti Airtel to buy Tikona's 4G spectrum

India's largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel is in talks with Tikona Digital Networks to buy the latter's 4G spectrum for Rs. 800- to Rs, 1,000 crore, reported Mint.

The report said that the deal has some debt on its books which Airtel will assume, so the overall deal value is close to Rs. 1,500 - Rs. 1,700 crore. The deal will be split into multiple tranches.

In 2010 auction, Tikona bought 2300 MHz band in Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, UP (East), UP (West) and Rajasthan for over Rs. 1,058 crore​.

The report said that the Mumbai-based internet service provider is hiving off its wireless broadband business, Tikona WiBro, which it will continue to run independently.

The idea is (for Airtel) to strengthen the overall portfolio and increase capacity to offer data. The deal will help get pan-India 4G coverage in 2,300 MHz band and will help Airtel fill the gaps in 2,300 MHz," it added.

The deal will allow Airtel to increase its capacity to offer data services to customers.

The development comes just after Airtel's announced its plan to acquire Telenor India, which has operations in seven circles - Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam.

It will also enable Airtel to further bolster its strong spectrum footprint in these seven circles, and it will also give Airtel access to 44 million customers 43.4 MHz of spectrum in the 1,800MHz band and 20,000 base stations.

However, the transaction is subject to regulatory approvals, including approvals from the Department of Telecommunications in India and the Competition Commission of India