Telecom deals set to get nod by June

The telecom department on Thursday assured that the Airtel-Telenor deal will be approved in less than a month and asserted that clearances related to the mega merger of Vodafone and Idea Cellular too are being expedited.

Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said she did not foresee any hurdles in the clearances pertaining to the Vodafone-Idea merger (a move that would create India's largest telecom operator dislodging Bharti Airtel from the top slot) and that it "should get done" in the timeframe of June outlined by the two companies.

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had dismissed the Department of Telecom (DoT) plea that challenged telecom tribunal order directing it to clear Airtel's takeover of Telenor India, without insisting on bank guarantee of about Rs 1,500 crore as a pre-requisite. The move is widely perceived to have positive implications for a takeover deals in the rapidly consolidating telecom market in India.

"Very shortly. (It will take) normal processing time and it will be done," Sundararajan said.

She said the approval will come "must faster" than a month. On whether the same applicability (bank guarantee) should also be expected for Vodafone-Idea merger, the telecom secretary declined to make a specific comment, merely saying that each case will have to be seen separately.