Asia Bizz: The Supreme Court of India cancelled 122 telecom licenses that were issued to a clutch of 2G mobile operators on February 2, 2012. The impact is now likely to be felt in about half a dozen telecom circles in the country.
With the cancellations of licenses, more than 75 million mobile users across the country can be affected and many of whom are the subscribers of new telecom players. Most of the fallout can be seen in the states of Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh(E), Uttar Pradesh (W) Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.
The licenses cancelled included 21 of Videocon, 9 of Idea, 21 of Loop, 6 of S-Tel, 21 of Sistema, 3 of Tata, 22 of Unitech Wireless Ltd, 13 of Swan and 2 of Allianz. The industry sources opined that should the operators who lost the licenses fail at the new auctions for 2G spectrum.
On the other hand, the fallout could also work in the favor of the established players in the market and also a possible upward revision of call tariffs. It has also been pointed out that the mobile tariffs have bottomed out which has put a pressure on the Average Revenue Per Users margins due to the attractive rates offered by the new entrants.
