No plan to acquire any telecom player: SSTL

Sistema Shyam Teleservices says it is awaiting outcome of its petition filed before the Supreme Court

Sistema Shyam Teleservices today said that it has no plans to acquire any telecom service provider and it will wait for the outcome of its curative petition filed before the Supreme Court.

"SSTL would like to categorically state that there are no plans of acquiring any telecom service provider. From the perspective of SSTL, the immediate priority is to look at the outcome of the company's curative petition filed in the Supreme Court," the company said in an statement.

A joint venture between Russian conglomerate Sistema and Shyam Teleservices, SSTL's 21 licences were among the 122 licences quashed by the Supreme Court in February.

The company has filed a curative petition before the Supreme Court seeking restoration of its licences. The petition was filed on May 4, 2012 but has not been listed for hearing till date.

The company has consistently maintained that being a pure play CDMA operator, its legal case is significantly different compared to other mobile operators, SSTL said.

"For example, there is no finding or suggestion by the CAG report that CDMA spectrum was equally or anywhere near in demand as GSM back in 2008. The same also became evident in the recently concluded auction for CDMA," he said.

To continue its operations, the company was required to participate in the recent spectrum auction. However the company did not participate in the auction. The licences of the company are valid till January 18, 2013, as per the Supreme Court order.

The government plans to conduct another auction of CDMA spectrum till March end as there was no bidder for these airwaves in the recent sale.