Telecom stocks such as Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications and Bharti Airtel gained up to 4 per cent on Wednesday as the Telecom Commission had on Tuesday decided in favour of relaxation of spectrum-holding caps for mobile companies and also approved awarding of category B licences to virtual network operators.
Any relaxation of spectrum-holding cap will help telcos such as Reliance Jio Infocomm, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. The issue of spectrum cap, as well as that of deferred payment tenure will now go to the Cabinet for final approval. The official said both the recommendations will be sent to the Cabinet immediately.
Following the development, Idea Cellular stock jumped 4.5 per cent to an intraday high of ₹113.50. RCom shares climbed 4 per cent to a high of ₹ 34.05 and Bharti Airtel rose 1.5 per cent to a high of ₹517.45 on the BSE.
The commission also approved increasing the budget for the Network for Spectrum (NFS) project. NFS is a dedicated communications network that the Telecom Department is setting up for the defence forces.