Russian major Sistema wants to stay invested in India and is not considering exiting the telecom venture as of now.
The company, one of the players affected by the Supreme Court ruling last week on licence cancellation, is now looking forward to fair auction rules so that it can buy back spectrum.
“Exiting is not an option being considered as of now. We have long-term plans for India and we are working with the Government to see how best we can move ahead. The rules of the auction will be crucial and we hope that the Government policy will create some differentiation between new and incumbent players,” Mr Vsevolod Rozanov, Chief Executive Officer, Sistema Shyam Ltd, told
GSM spectrum
The operator offers services to about 15 million subscribers in 22 circles under the MTS brand on CDMA platform.
Mr Rozanov said that his team is thinking about bidding for GSM spectrum also along with CDMA to get dual technology status but the final decision will be based on the business case.
“We have the opportunity to get into the GSM space but it is not an obvious decision. It will depend on the business case which in turn is impacted by the auction rules,” Mr Rozanov said.
Apart from Sistema, other foreign players affected by the 2G ruling include Norway's Telenor, Bahrain-based Batelco and UAE-based Etisalat. While Batelco has already announced its decision to exit, Telenor is keeping that option open in case the auction rules are not conducive enough for it to win spectrum.
Sistema Shyam's confidence may be borne from the fact that it basically needs CDMA spectrum for which there may not be too many bidders. The only other player which may bid for CDMA spectrum is Reliance Communications that too for incremental airwaves. If the Russian company bids for GSM spectrum and wins, it will only be a bonus.
Separately, Sistema is also filing a review petition against the apex court's verdict. According to sources it is also invoking provisions of an international treaty signed between Russia and India which essentially protects investments from each others countries. (Russian Government has invested nearly $600 million in Sistema Shyam).
New tariff plan
A clear indication of its intention in India is the new aggressive tariff plan the company announced on Thursday offering free calls and SMS between its subscribers for a flat rate of Rs 147 a month.
“Our team is charged up even more post the recent developments. The next few weeks will be crucial but at the operational level its business as usual,” said Mr Rozanov.