Government likely to announce M&A policy for telecom sector by October 15

According to Kapil Sibal, Minister of Telecommunications and IT, the government is working towards putting-in place the long-awaited merger and acquisition (M&A) policy for the telecom sector by October 15, 2013.

As per the minister, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), will hold another meeting with telecom operators before announcing M&A policy. The DoT is likely to exchange ideas with various industry stakeholders on important issues falling within the purview of M&A policy, before unveiling the final policy.

Going forward, for the financial year 2013-14, government expects revenue of Rs 408.470 billion from spectrum auction and the one time-spectrum fee to be levied on GSM and CDMA operators for holding additional spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz and 2.5 MHz, respectively.