‘Vodafone mulling buy-outs to meet Spectrum needs’

Vodafone, the world’s largest mobile operator and the second largest GSM mobile service provider in India, may acquire telecom service providers in India in order to meet its requirement for spectrum, said Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin. Currently, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) follows subscriber-linked criteria for allotting spectrum to telecom service providers. “Our first priority will be to get spectrum through subscriber-linked criteria. Otherwise we will try to acquire companies who have spectrum,” Sarin told The Indian Express. He made it clear that in such a situation, some of the new letter of intent (LoI) holders for telecom licences who have not yet launched services may be the target. He added that Vodafone would not pay the kind of price that it had paid to Hutch for buying the latter’s equity in Hutch-Essar. This is because Vodafone paid Hutch for subscribers, business and brand. The valuation in case of new entrants will be only for the spectrum they would be eligible for, Sarin pointed out. He also said that the company would participate in 3G services whenever the government finalises its plans.