KOLKATA: Bharti Airtel will buy Aircel’s 4G spectrum in eight circles for Rs 3,500 crore through a trading deal, which would make India’s No. 1 phone company a pan-India 4G player ahead of an expected clash for data consumers with newcomer Reliance Jio.The deal will help Aircel pare debt and may fulfil a condition for its merger with Reliance Communications, a person familiar with the matter said. Aircel needed to reduce some Rs 4,000 crore of its Rs 18,000-crore debt. Airtel will acquire Aircel’s 4G airwaves in Tamil Nadu (including Chennai), Bihar , J&K, West Bengal Assam , North East, Andhra Pradesh and Odisha.The airwaves are valid till September 20, 2030. “Bharti Airtel and its subsidiary Bharti Hexacom have entered into definitive agreements with Aircel Ltd and its subsidiaries Dishnet Wireless Ltd and Aircel Cellular Ltd to acquire rights to use 20 MHz of 2300 band 4G spectrum for eight circles for an aggregate consideration of Rs 3,500 crore,” India’s largest telecom company said in a filing with the Bombay Stock Exchange after the stock markets closed. “The transfer of the right to use (4G spectrum) for Andhra Pradesh and Odisha is subject to revision of spectrum caps with the upcoming auction to be conducted by the telecom department,” Airtel said.ET was the first to report on the Airtel-Aircel deal talks in its edition on October 7, 2015. People familiar with the RCom-Aircel talks had subsequently said the two had decided to retain Aircel’s 2300 MHz spectrum to be able to share and trade at a later stage. But, under pressure to cut debt, Aircel finally went ahead with the sale to Airtel. Lately, the Sunil Mittalfounded Bharti Airtel has been on a 4G spectrum expansion overdrive. After buying Qualcomm’s airwaves in four circles, Airtel purchased Augere Wireless, which owned 4G airwaves in the Chhattisgarh-Madhya Pradesh circle.Both deals netted Airtel airwaves in the 2300 MHz band and raised its holdings in that particular band. Last month, Airtel bought Videocon Telecom’s 4G airwaves in the 1800 MHz band in six circles for Rs 4,428 crore, also through a bandwidth trading deal. Bharti’s aggressive 4G airwaves push comes when industry experts expect incumbents with wider data spectrum holdings to be in a stronger position to ring-fence their customer base from any potential attacks from Jio, which till now was the only owner of pan-India 4G spectrum.Airtel was the first to start 4G services, on the 2300 MHz band, in 2012. It stepped up the rollout in the past few months, expanding to more than 350 cities and towns, anticipating competition from Jio, which is expected to soft launch its 4G services shortly and start wider commercial operations by December.Airtel has rolled out 4G in 15 circles, Vodafone India in five and No. 3 carrier, Idea Cellular, in 10 circles. Industry experts said it makes sense for Aircel to exit the 4G turf, which will be dominated by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Jio. RCom has entered into spectrum sharing and trading deals with Jio, which will be effective even if RCom’s deal to merge its wireless business with Aircel fructifies. Maxis-owned Aircel paid Rs 3,438 crore to win airwaves in the 2300 MHz band in the 2010 spectrum auction.Like most companies that bought the airwaves at the time, Aircel has barely met rollout obligations. Its 4G networks are functional in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Odisha, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir for enterprise customers only.