The government’s final verdict on the M&A norms is in favour of startups. The new operators can enjoy the freedom to sell majority stake in their companies. Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura conformed that the government would not be reviewing the M&A norms.

But Idea Cellular and Spice Communication had to face the brunt by paying up to Rs. 843. And this is due to the stringent M&A norms for merger of two licenses. Spice Communication has operations in Punjab and Karnataka due to which it had to cough up a non-refundable licence fee amounting to Rs 358 crore.

New players had to pay Rs. 1,651 crore for acquiring start-up spectrum whihc in turn would give them a pan-India presence. As per FDI norms new operators have the right to sell up to 74 % stakes.

New entrants like Unitech (the real estate major) and Datacom (promulgated by Videocon) are in talks with foreign operators to sell stakes.