Bharti Airtel completes merger of Tata Tele's consumer mobile businesses

Experts believe the move will lead to better network utilization, as spectrum will now be with Bharti Airtel along with enhanced customer base.

Bharti Airtel and Bharti Hexacom on Monday announced the merger of the consumer mobile businesses (CMB) of Tata Teleservices (TTSL) and Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) (TTML) with the two Bharti Group companies. This move spells better synergies and increased customer base for the country's third-largest mobile service provider.

“Following the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal's order directing the Department of Telecommunications to take the merger on record and approval of the schemes of arrangement by the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT)-Delhi and NCLT-Mumbai, we are pleased to announce that the schemes of arrangement have become effective today i.e., July 1, 2019," Bharti Airtel said in a joint statement with TTSL.

Consequently, all customers, assets, spectrum, and agreed liabilities of the consumer mobile businesses of TTSL and TTML now stand merged with Airtel. Experts believe the move will lead to better network utilization, as spectrum will now be with Bharti Airtel along with enhanced customer base.

As part of the merger, Airtel will absorb TTSL's CMB operations in 19 telecom circles - 17 under TTSL and two under TTML. It also agreed to take over a small portion of the unpaid spectrum liability of TTSL.

The merger will bolster Airtel's spectrum pool with significant additional 178.5 megahertz (MHz) spectrum in 1,800, 2,100, and 850 MHz bands, widely used for 4G.

The merger includes transfer of all customers and assets of TTSL CMB to Airtel.

Bharti Airtel is a leading global telecommunications company, with operations in 18 countries across Asia and Africa. In India, the company's product offerings include 2G, 3G, and 4G wireless services, mobile commerce, fixed line services, high-speed home broadband, direct-to-home, and enterprise services, including national and international long-distance services to carriers.

In the rest of the geographies, it offers 2G, 3G, 4G wireless services, and mobile commerce. Bharti Airtel had over 403 million customers across its operations at the end of March 2019.

TTSL is a growing market leader in the enterprise space and offers a comprehensive portfolio of voice, data, and managed services to small, medium, and large enterprises.