The Department of Telecom (DoT) has cleared the merger of Sistema Shyam Teleservices with Reliance Communications, a deal that will reduce the number of mobile operators in the country to ten. “RCOM has received the DoT approval for the demerger of the wireless business of Sistema Shyam Teleservices limited (SSTl) into RCom,” the Anil-Ambani led telecom firm said in a statement.
According to a source, the deal was cleared by the DoT on October 20. Under the deal, all wireless business assets of SSTl will come under RCom. However, brand MTS will continue to operate. STl will gets 10 per cent stake in RCom as per the terms of the deal. “With this, Rcom will acquire approximately 2 million customers and additional annual revenues of around Rs 700 crore. In addition, RCom will acquire 30 MHz of the most valuable and superior 800/850 MHz band spectrum, ideally suited for 4G lTE services, to complement its own unique nationwide footprint,” the statement said.