DoT approves Airtel Telenor Merger

[Navjot Singh]

"The DoT has approved merger of Telenor India with Bharti Airtel this morning," the official source told PTI.

The Supreme Court last week rejected 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.

The merger will bolster Airtel's spectrum footprint in seven telecom circles, with the addition of 43.4 MHz spectrum in the 1800 MHz band.

Telenor India runs operations in seven circles -- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam.

Department of Telecom approves merger of Bharti Airtel and Telenor India - Firstpost

 

[Sushubh]

Airtel Telenor Deal: Bharti Airtel Completes Telenor Acquisition - Bloomberg Quint

 

[Navjot Singh]

Airtel to lay-off section of Telenor staff post-merger

A day after government approved its merger with telecom major Airtel, a section of Telenor India’s employees are facing lay-off.

They got mails from Bharti Airtel asking them to attend a meeting with the HR officials to discuss “way ahead and next step”, an employee working for the Norwegian telecom company’s Indian subsidiary in Andhra Pradesh circle said.

Confirming the move, Airtel said “not all people from Telenor India will find meaningful roles within Airtel”.

An Airtel source said Telenor India has around 1,400 employees and 700 of them had been absorbed.

Airtel offered “good financial” package besides continuance of medical insurance and free calls to the dropouts, the source said.

 

[SVK]

DoT gives nod to Airtel-Telenor merger

The subscribers will "continue to enjoy uninterrupted services with the Same SIM, Same Number, and Same Plan or Pack benefits", Airtel said.

Same plans? Telenor plans were very cheap I guess.

 

[amish]

I think same plan / rates is compulsory by rules and not by any kind of generosity by Airtel.

But in any case - in era of unlimited calls and virtually unlimited internet for just 150-199Rs a month. Airtel anyway does not have much margin to increase rates.

So its better for Airtel to retain a customer then to make them go away to some other operator.