SC to hear DoT plea on amalgamation of Bharti Airtel, Tikona Digital

The Supreme Court Wednesday agreed to hear on July 8 the DoT plea challenging an order of telecom tribunal, TDSAT, which stayed its demand of Rs 1,626.89 crore from Bharti Airtel Ltd.

The demand was made for the completion of amalgamation of Bharti Digital Networks Pvt Ltd, formerly known as Tikona Digital Networks Pvt Ltd, with itself.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) had taken note of Bharti Airtel's plea against the DoT demand for spectrum fees and stayed it.

A bench comprising Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose took note of the plea by the Department of Telecom (DoT) for an urgent hearing and posted the matter for July 8.

Bharti Airtel said recently that it has completed the amalgamation.

In March 2017, Airtel had announced its decision to acquire 4G business of Tikona Networks, including broadband spectrum and 350 sites across five telecom circles, for about Rs 1,600 crore.

Tikona had 20 MHz spectrum in the 2,300-MHz band, with second largest ecosystem of 4G devices in Gujarat, eastern UP, western UP, Rajasthan and Himachal Pradesh circles.