The Department of Telecommunications has issued letter of intent to Bharti Airtel for acquiring unified licence in order to continue its operations in the Delhi and Mumbai circles.

The operator’s licences in the two circles are coming up for renewal by November 2014 and the operator was required to migrate to the new licencing regime i.e. unified licence to continue operations. The unified licence which does not come bundled with spectrum, will enable Bharti Airtel to offer technology neutral services.

For acquiring unified licence, the operator will have to submit one-time entry fee of Rs 150 million, excluding bank guarantees etc.

While Bharti Airtel acquires the unified licence, its competitor Vodafone India will have to sell 4.4 per cent stake which it holds in one of the subsidiary company of Bharti Group. Under the unified licencing regime, the government bars an operator from holding a stake in competiting firms.

Vodafone India and Bharti Airtel currently operate on Unified Access Service Licence, or 2G licences, under which telecom companies are allowed 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 a competing company within a year of acquiring unified licence.