Merger of Telenor with Airtel gets DoT approval

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 14

Country’s largest telecommunication services provider Airtel and Telenor South Asia Investments Pte Ltd on Monday announced the completion of their transaction, wherein Airtel has acquired the operations of Telenor (India) Communications Private Limited (“Telenor India”).

All existing customers of Telenor India will now become a part of Airtel network, Bharti Airtel said in a late evening statement. With the completion of this transaction, Airtel’s total mobile customer base in India now stands at over 330 million.

Earlier in the day, the DoT had approved the long-pending merger of Telenor with  Airtel. The approval came within days of the Supreme Court rejecting DoT’s petition for security deposit of around Rs 1,700 crore from the companies and directed it to approve the merger.

The guarantee included Rs 1,499 crore for one-time spectrum charge for the radiowaves allocated to Airtel without auction, and over Rs 200 crore for spectrum payment which Telenor has to make.