Mumbai: Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Adani Data Networks, and Vodafone Idea have paid the department of telecom an upfront sum of about Rs 17,876 crore for the spectrum they recently won in an auction.

DoT has received a total payment of approximately Rs 17,876 crore. Only Bharti Airtel has made full payment for four annual instalments. Reliance Jio has made payments of Rs 7,864.78 crore, Vodafone Idea paid Rs 1,679.98 crore, and Adani Data Networks paid Rs 18.94 crore.

Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 8,312.4 crore, or four annual instalments, while all telecom operators have chosen to pay in 20 annual instalments.

With a bid of Rs 87,946.93 crore, Mukesh Ambani's Jio secured nearly half of the airwaves sold in the nation's largest-ever auction of telecom spectrum, which attracted bids totaling a record Rs 1.5 lakh crore.

Gautam Adani's group has bid Rs 211.86 crore for 400 MHz in a band that is not used for providing public telephony services.

Bharti Airtel, owned by telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal, submitted a winning bid of Rs 43,039.63 crore, and Vodafone Idea purchased spectrum for Rs 18,786.25 crore.