DoT approves Bharti’s merger with Telenor

The government on Monday approved the merger of the local unit of Norway’s Telenor with Bharti Airtel, clearing the last hurdle for the deal to go through.

In a notification on Monday, the Department of Telecom (DoT) said it had transferred all licences and liabilities of Telenor India to Bharti Airtel.

“The present merger is taken on record without prejudice to the rights, contentions, remedies and steps which may be taken by the department, in pursuance of any subsequent orders of any orders, judgements and decisions of Hon’ble Courts/Tribunals in related matters... pending in the Bombay High Court, TDSAT and Supreme Court,” DoT said.

Bharti Airtel, in a statement later in the day, announced the completion of the acquisition. All Telenor customers would now be a part of Bharti Airtel with the same SIM, same number and same plan, the company said.

Bharti would add 43.5 MHz spectrum (5 MHz to 7.2MHz in each of the seven circles) to its portfolio. With this transaction, the company would now have more than 330 million customers, strengthening its lead over Reliance Jio.

“As a next step, Airtel will begin integrating Telenor India’s operations across seven circles — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam,” the company said.