The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has rejected the proposal of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India to extend the expiry deadlines of their licenses in the Delhi, Kolkata and Mumbai circles. The operators believe that the delay in allocation of the spectrum in the 1800 MHz won by them would lead to disruption of services in these circles and therefore, had requested DoT to allow for more time to re-configure their networks to the new airwaves that were recently allotted to the operators.

Bharti Airtel has spectrum in the 900 MHz band in Delhi and Kolkata circles which are nearing expiry in November 2014. Also, Vodafone India’s licence in the 900 MHz band will expire in the circles of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata simultaneously. Both the operators had therefore asked for more time to assess the total load in a particular circle.