Bharti Airtel seeks DoT nod to merge broadband business in 4 circles with mobile

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel has sought approval of the telecom department for merging its broadband wireless access (BWA) services in four circles of Delhi, Mumbai, Haryana and Kerala with its mobile operations in the corresponding service areas.

The move comes within a fortnight of the company receiving a nod from the Bombay High court to merge its internet service provider licence with its unified access service permit (UASL).

In a letter to the telecom department, Bharti has said that it wished to merge the internet service provider licence of Airtel Broadband Services Pvt Ltd along with the corresponding BWA spectrum with the USAL permits in the four circles. Airtel Broadband Services Pvt Ltd, formerly known as Wireless Business Services Pvt Ltd was a unit of CDMA chipmaker Qualcomm and was fully acquired by Airtel last year.

After this acquisition, Airtel had permits to operate BWA services in a total of eight service areas including the circles of Punjab, Maharashtra, Kolkata and Karnataka that it had bought in the 2010 auctions. While Airtel never revealed the total cost of acquisition, it had purchased an initial 49% in the company in May 2012 for $165 million.