With the Supreme Court dismissing its objections, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Monday approved the merger of Telenor India with Bharti Airtel, thus paving the way for the exit of the Norwegian telecom operator from the Indian market and strengthening Bharti’s spectrum holding in 4G-enabled 1800 MHz spectrum in seven circles.

“The effective date for transfer of all assets and liabilities related to DoT shall be as per the scheme of amalgamation approved by the NCLT on March 8, 2018,” DoT said in a notification.

As ordered by the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal and the SC the approval was granted without Bharti having to pay Rs 1,500 crore towards the one-time spectrum charge (OTSC) levied by the DoT.

In February 2017, Bharti had announced that it is acquiring Telenor India in a no-cash deal. Bharti will acquire Telenor India’s operations in seven circles — Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Maharashtra, Gujarat, UP (East), UP (West) and Assam.

The merger provides Bharti with 43.4 MHz spectrum in 1800 MHz band, 5 MHz to 7.2 MHz in each of the seven circles, as well as 39.30 million subscribers. Post-merger, Bharti will have a revenue market share of 32.3 per cent, subscriber market share of 29 per cent and its total spectrum holdings across all bands will increase to 979.45 MHz.