Indian telecom giant Bharti Airtel announced on Tuesday that it will acquire the unused 5G spectrum from the Adani Group, which the conglomerate had purchased during the 2022 auctions but never deployed.
Sunil Mittal’s Bharti Airtel and its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom Limited have entered into definitive agreements with Adani Data Networks Limited (ADNL), a unit of Adani Enterprises, to acquire the rights to use 400 MHz of spectrum in the 26 GHz band, according to a regulatory filing.
This includes 100 MHz of 5G spectrum each in Gujarat and Mumbai, and 50 MHz each in Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu.
“The closing of the transaction is subject to the satisfaction of standard conditions, including those outlined in the Spectrum Trading Guidelines and statutory approvals,” Airtel said.
The value of the transaction has not yet been disclosed.
Adani Group’s 5G Plans — And Why They Didn’t Work
Adani Data Networks had acquired the rights to use 400 MHz of 5G spectrum in the 26 GHz millimetre wave band in August 2022 for Rs 212 crore.
Importantly, the spectrum licenses were meant solely for private captive networks and not for consumer mobile services like those offered by Reliance Jio or Airtel. These private networks are designed for limited-area applications such as in factories, hospitals, or other enterprise environments.
At the time of the purchase, the Adani Group said the spectrum would support digitisation across its core infrastructure, industrial operations, and B2C businesses via a unified digital platform.
However, a Moneycontrol report earlier this year revealed that the group found the deployment commercially unviable. It reportedly informed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) of the challenges in executing the plan.
The report claimed that the Gautam Adani-led group was considering surrendering the spectrum due to its limited commercial feasibility.
Reports say Indian firms have been facing several challenges in rolling out private captive networks, with only a few use cases, such as those of Reliance Jio and Airtel.
