With the increasing competition between Indian telecom service providers, Airtel may soon acquire Loop Mobile which has a very strong contention in the Mumbai locality.
Loop Mobile, which started operations in Mumbai in 2005 and is currently the fourth-largest operator in the area, is planning on exiting the telecom sector and has initiated negotiations with other service providers. As of now, Bharti Airtel has emerged the frontrunner to acquire Loop Mobile, along with the 3 million customer base.
While the discussions with Airtel have been in progress for quite some time, the deal seems to be quite close but depends heavily on the clarity on guidelines governing mergers and acquisitions in the telecom sector and the renewal fee for Loop’s licence, which expires in September 2014. Interestingly, Loop Mobile has an 8 MHz of spectrum in the 900 MHz frequency band, which is preferred by cellular companies as it is more efficient, as it required a lesser number of cell phone towers, thus reducing the capital investment.
