The Indian Supreme Court cancelled 122 licenses issued to nine telecom operators by the UPA government in January 2008, yesterday. Affected telecom operators have issued statements reacting to the verdict: Telenor says the option to quit is still there: Telenor sent across a note yesterday saying that it has yet to review the ruling would comment later, but an Economic Times report quotes Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas as saying that the option to quit was on the table after calls by investors and analysts putting pressure on the company. He said that the ruling was a very serious attack on the company's investments, based on the licence framework that was spelt out in 2008 and said that it is an action that it had never seen in any country before. Idea Cellular says only 6M subscribers in 7 circles impacted: Idea Cellular's 13 licenses which include its own 9 licenses and 4 licenses of erstwhile Spice Communications which it had acquired and merged, have been cancelled. It claims that the judgement impacts only around 6 million subscribers, accounting for about 5% of its cumulative Capex, 4% of its revenue, and that the seven circles impacted are EBITDA loss making circles. The seven circles it says are impacted include Tamil Nadu, Kolkata, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, NESA and Jammu & Kashmir, and the remaining 2 licenses (of Idea Cellular) and 4 licenses (of the erstwhile Spice Communications) it claims are non-operational. On the rationale behind the cancellation, Idea claims that it is unnecessarily being hauled up,…
