India operator Bharti Airtel made an additional prepayment to the Department of Telecom (DoT) for spectrum acquired in an auction in 2015, bringing the total it prepaid over the past four months to INR243.3 billion ($3.2 billion).

In a stock market filing, the operator said it paid INR88.2 billion as partial prepayment toward deferred liabilities for instalments due in fiscal 2027 and 2028. The liabilities have a 10 per cent interest rate.

Airtel noted it continues to focus on financial flexibility via its capital structure, including optimising financing costs and taking advantage of opportunities to significantly reduce interest costs.

In January 2022, market leader Reliance Jio made a prepayment of INR307.9 billion covering interest relating to spectrum acquired in auctions in 2014, 2015 and 2016, and purchases from Bharti Airtel in August 2021.

DoT reforms gave operators the flexibility to prepay their deferred spectrum liabilities at any time.