The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sought the Ministry of Law’s opinion on the proposed merger of Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (RJIL) and Infotel Telecom Limited (ITL). This comes after the Access Service Cell of DoT on December 31, 2014 suggested that the matter requires legal view over whether the merger is in line with the current merger and acquisition (M&A) guidelines.

According to the new M&A rules, it is not mandatory to seek DoT approval before filing scheme of amalgamation in Registrar of Companies, but under the guidelines of Unified licences, the scheme of amalgamation requires written approval of DoT.

By merging both entities, RJIL will comply with the Unified Licence to allow it to offer national and international long distance services as well as data services under a single licence. ITL owns licences to offer national long distance and international long distance services, while RJIL has licences to offer 4G data and voice services across India through spectrum in the 2300 MHz band.