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The Department of Telecom has taken a view that the proposed move by Malaysia’s Axiata to increase stake in Idea Cellular does not have any security ramification.
Axiata Investments 2, part of Asian telecom giant Axiata Group, had made a proposal to the Foreign Investment Proposal Board to acquire equity shares of Idea Cellular by executing trades on the floor of the stock exchange aggregating to one per cent of the company's total issued equity share capital. The Axiata group currently holds 19.98 per cent in Idea Cellular through various group companies.
In June, the Ministry of Home Affairs sent a note to the DoT raising concerns over a Karachi-based subsidiary of Axiata, Multinet Pakistan Ltd. The Pakistani entity has launched an inter-connect platform that will act as an exchange for routing voice and data traffic among operators in the South Asian region. The Ministry of Home Affairs had asked the DoT to look into possible security threats from such routing.
In its response, the DoT has said that international operators are free to route traffic through any international carrier based on the business case. It further said that since Axiata already owns equity stake in Idea Cellular, the one per cent additional stake will not result in any new security vulnerability as was being apprehended by the Home Ministry.
> thomas.thomas@thehindu.co.in
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