Bharti Airtel Ltd.

Bharti Airtel and Loop’s Rs 700-crore deal has received Law Ministry’s approval. The deal had not been approved after differences cropped up between the Department of Telecom and regulator TRAI on whether an operator’s subscribers could be transferred to another operator without their consent.

In February, Airtel had announced that it would acquire Loop Mobile’s three million subscribers in Mumbai along with its infrastructure, 400 towers.

Loop Mobile’s 20-year licence expires in November and the company was unable to win back spectrum to continue services. On the other hand, Airtel won spectrum in Mumbai in the last auction round. The slump-sale deal with Airtel, therefore, came as a relief for Loop subscribers, who were assured of service continuity.