DoT issues letter of intent for unified licence to Airtel

The Department of Telecom has issued letter of intent to Bharti Airtel for taking new telecom licence in Delhi and Kolkata service areas, following which Vodafone may have to sell its about 4.4 per cent stake in a subsidiary of Bharti group.
"LoI (Letter of Intent) to Airtel was issued early last week for Delhi and Kolkata," a DoT official told PTI.
Licences of Airtel in Delhi and Kolkata are expiring in November this year and it will need Unified Licence (UL) for continuing operations.
An UL, which is not bundled with spectrum, enables a firm to provide technology neutral telecom services.

The company will have to submit money within a month of getting LoI for new licence. As per the guideline, the one-time entry fee for UL is Rs 15 crore, excluding bank guarantees etc.
In a letter to the Telecom Ministry in July 2013, Vodafone had said it holds 4.4 per cent stake indirectly in Bharti.

Vodafone has to sell its entire stake in Airtel following new norms issued by government that bars a telecom operator from holding any kind of stake in competiting firms under Unified Licences.
Vodafone and Airtel currently operate on Unified Access Service Licence (UASL), or 2G licences, under which telecom companies are permitted to hold up to 9.9 per cent stake in other firms.

However, as per the new rules, telecom service providers operating under previous licences will have to migrate to new licences on expiry of their permits and sell stakes held by them in any rival within a year of getting UL.
Vodafone also has applied for UL in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata but is yet to get LoI for DoT.