Bharti Airtel pitches for liberal M&A norms in telecom sector

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel today said that guidelines for merger and acquisitions (M&A) should be liberal to facilitate consolidation in the telecom sector.

"... in order to facilitate consolidation we recommend that the M&A guidelines should be liberal, forward looking, equitable and non-discriminatory," Bharti Airtel said.

These observations are part of the company's comments on the Draft National Telecom Policy (NTP) 2011 sent to the Telecom Ministry.

Regarding allocation of 2G spectrum, the company said the entity holding the spectrum should have the right of first refusal upon expiry of spectrum rights.

"In case, the entity decides not to exercise their options to renew, the spectrum should be auctioned again in a fair and transparent manner wherein the entity who did not exercise its option, is also allowed to participate," the firm said in the communication.

Further, Bharti Airtel noted that spectrum usage charges should be set to a flat rate to ensure transparency, predictability and level playing field.