Idea Cellular on Monday said it had not breached any licence conditions at the time of acquiring stake in Spice Telecom.
The company said despite getting legal approval from the High Court for the merger, Department of Telecommunication was yet to issue a letter. Hence the company has filed an appeal with the Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellete Tribunal.
“The Idea/Spice merger, since approved by the Courts, happened to involve six overlapping licenses. Despite being issued spectrum for five of these, it is Idea which advised the DoT that it was not using such spectrum, in effect, placing overlapping licenses in a
The company has paid Rs 843 crore entry fee, and maintained bank guarantees of Rs 350 crore, but has derived nil benefit. No license condition has even remotely been breached,” the company said in a statement.
It added that the court merger was consummated with the full knowledge of the DoT, over a year ago. “For reasons unknown, the DoT has so far not issued merger letter in consonance with the court-approved merger. The company has asked for merger of licenses as per guidelines, which incidentally yields the company nothing beyond the incumbent license entitlement, merger or no merger,” the operator said.
Idea Cellular said it had sought nothing beyond its legitimate right, and has been and will remain unfailingly committed to observing the law of the land in letter and in spirit.