Finally, Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has given the green signal for the long-awaited merger between Telenor India and India’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel. All assets of Telenor India including the Unified License, spectrum and other resources will be transferred to Airtel. Also, all the liabilities including the licenses/spectrum charges will also fall into the shoulder of Airtel.
Telenor India’s subscribers in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam telecom circles would now able to use Airtel’s network. They will get uninterrupted telecom service under the same mobile SIM card, mobile number and also the same tariff plan they have opted for. The transition would be seamless and there won’t be any service interruption.
“We welcome all Telenor customers to the Airtel family and look forward to delighting them with best-in-class products,” said Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India & South Asia). “The acquisition consolidates our market leadership, further strengthens our network portfolio in key markets and will add to shareholder value,” he further added.
Through this acquisition, Airtel will further strengthen its network in these seven telecom circles. Thanks to the addition of 43.4 MHz spectrum in the 1,800 MHz band.
Exactly one year ago, Airtel announced the acquisition of Norwegian Telenor’s India telecom unit – Telenor (India) Communications Pvt Ltd or Telenor India. As part of the acquisition, Airtel will completely take over Telenor assets and operation in six telecom circles of India. With the acquisition, Airtel will own Telenor’s spectrum, licenses and operations, including its employees and around 44 million of the subscriber base. That would raise up Airtel’s overall customer base to nearly 330 million subscribers.
If in case you are facing any issue while connecting to Airtel’s network from your Telenor mobile connection, you could contact Airtel’s customer care via calling 121.