Merger of SSTL into RCom to be Completed by October 2017

Long period MTS mobile and dongle users, it is confirmed that days of MTS India brand in India is numbered. Today on October 1st, 2017 Reliance Communications has released a press released regarding alternate plans to reduce debt as stated by Anil D. Ambani at Recent AGM.

In that PR, it has been confirmed that RCom-SSTL merger to be completed by this month. The merger was announced back in November 2015, and it has been delayed due to many reasons, but mostly from delay from DoT.

Conclusion of the merger will give RCom access to SSTL’s 850 MHz airwaves with extended validity till 2033 in eight key markets that will be used for 4G expansion.

Stats:

• As soon as the merger is completed, RCom will kill off SSTL's MTS CDMA services, which will be India's 5rd shut down of CDMA services (after MTNL, Ping, BSNL, RCom). 
• Now only operator in India with CDMA services active is Tata Docomo/Tata Indicom. 

Timeline of RCom-SSTL Merger: 

November 2, 2015: RCom announced the merger with Sistema Shyam Telecom Ltd. (SSTL) which operates under MTS India brand name in 8 circles (Delhi, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Kolkata, UP (West) and West Bengal). Post merger SSTL will hold 10 percent stake in merged entity. 

[Currently Russian tycoon Vladimir Evtushenkov-controlled AFK Sistema currently holds 56.68 percent stake in SSTL while the Russian government owns 17.14 percent interest. Shyam Group has 23.98 percent stake and the rest is owned by small investors.]

January 2016: NSE and BSE gave nod to merger.

22 February 2016: Competition Commission of India (CCI) has approved the merger.

March 2016: Shareholders of RCom approved the merger of the company with SSTL (March 9). In a seperate meeting SSTL shareholders also approved the merger (March 18). SEBI also clears the deal.

June 2016: RCom started migrating their CDMA customers to LTE platform by late June and later made it mandatory and finally shut down CDMA network in all circles.

July 1st, 2016: MTS shut down its online store.
July 23rd, 2016: shop.mtsindia.in reads : This is to inform you that as of 1st July’2016, www.shop.mtsindia.in is undergoing renovation.

September 30th, 2016: Rajasthan High Court approved the merger.

October 07, 2016: Merger got nod from Bombay High Court.

November 2016: RCom started allowing MTS users to migrate to RCom LTE/4G. 

May 2017: TDSAT ruled on the case filed by Department of Telecommunications (DoT) regarding licences fees, spectrum usage charges, other charges from SSTL. The rule was mostly favorable towards merger between SSTL-RCom.

September 2017: SSTL moved to TDSAT to push the merger as DoT is delaying to provide NoC for merger. TDSAT asked DoT to clear RCom-SSTL merger in 2 weeks.