Acquisition of Telenor is complete, says Airtel

New Delhi: Bharti Airtel on Monday said that it has completed the acquisition of telecom operator Telenor India, subsidiary of Norwegian operator Telenor.

“The transaction has received all regulatory and statutory approvals,” the company said. It said that as a next step, Airtel will begin integrating Telenor India’s operations across seven circles — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam.

All existing customers of Telenor India will now become a part of Airtel network. Telenor had around 45 million subscribers in February 2017 when the agreement for acquisition was signed. “With the completion of this transaction, Airtel’s total mobile customer base in India now stands at over 330 million,” said Airtel.

Airtel will add 5 MHz to 7.2 MHz of Telenor’s spectrum (1,800 band) in each of the seven circles. The addition of this fresh spectrum (total of 43.4 MHz) will enable Airtel to further expand network capacity.

Airtel plans to step up investments and aggressively expand its high speed data network across the country over the coming year as part of Project Leap, its network transformation program, the company said.

“The acquisition consolidates our market leadership, further strengthens our network portfolio in key markets and will add to shareholder value," said Gopal Vittal, MD and CEO (India & South Asia) Bharti Airtel.

• The entry of Reliance Jio had toughened the market conditions leading to consolidation in the sector and small operators looking to exit.
• Vodafone and Idea Cellular are also in the process of merging their businesses to create India’s largest telecom operator.