DoT seeks Trai's views on M&As

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has asked Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to give its views on guidelines for mergers and acquisitions, usage of different technologies by licensees and a cap on number of players in a circle.

Nripendra Misra, chairman, Trai said: "The department has sought our views on 3-points -- mergers and acquisitions, viable number of licencees in each service area and different usage of technology by licensees. We will be issuing a consultation paper seeking stakeholders views in the next 7-8 days."

On the issue of whether CDMA players can operate on GSM technology in a larger manner, Trai's decision could well decide the fate of Reliance Communications, which is aspiring to enter the GSM space in a pan-Indian presence and has thus applied for spectrum.

DoT has asked Trai to find out what would be the viable of number of operators in a service area. Currently, there are five to six operators in a circle.

The current M&A guidelines, which were announced in 2004, were to be eviewed after a year but have not been done so far. The guidelines stipulate that the combined or merged entity cannot hold more than 15 MHz of spectrum in Metro and A category circles and 12.4 MHz spectrum in B and C circles.