Telecom EGoM to discuss M&A rules, auctions on Nov 22

The Empowered Group of Ministers on telecom is expected to discuss on November 22 the sector's first merger and acquisition (M&A) guidelines as well as the roadmap for the third round of spectrum auction.

"EGoM is scheduled to meet on November 22. Besides auction related matters, the Department of Telecom will place before them the M&A guidelines as recommended by the Telecom Commission," a Telecom Ministry official told PTI.

Inter-ministerial panel Telecom Commission has suggested about 25% higher base price compared to the amount recommended by sectoral regulator Trai for radiowaves used for mobile phone services for the proposed auction.

The Telecom Commission had only forwarded its view on two sets of airwaves used by GSM players like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular.

The official said DoT has written today to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to suggest a base price for CDMA spectrum used by players like Sistema Shyam Teleservices, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications in 15 days.

Trai had recommended against of auction of CDMA spectrum at the moment and suggested to explore if part of these airwaves can be used for extended GSM services.

The official said DoT is working on other details for auction of all three sets of spectrum in third round which is expected to start in January.

The much-awaited M&A guidelines by the industry, that were expected to be announced this week, will get delayed further and likely to be made public after the EGoM decision.

Telecom Commission has recommended to allow companies to acquire another operator in a manner that market share of the resultant entity does not exceed 50%.

EGoM will have to decide on spectrum related issues that entity formed as result of consolidation of companies should be allowed to keep.