India's Department of Telecom (DoT) has cleared application from Vodafone Essar, Idea Cellular, and Aircel to be granted a 2G spectrum in circles where they currently hold licences, an Economic Times report said.
The report said the DoT also cleared the Tatas' application for GSM spectrum.
The applications of existing GSM operators such as Bharti for additional spectrum, which have been pending for close to two years, have also been cleared, sources added.
Sources said that telecom minister A Raja had already signed the requisite files, with regard to each of these issues and had sent them to the DoT, the Economic Times report said.
Idea, Vodafone and Aircel will now be given 4.4MHz of start-up GSM spectrum for launching services in each of the circles where they hold licenses, the report said.
This implies that Idea which already has operations in 11 telecom circles in the country can immediately expand its footprint to 13 circles while Vodafone Essar, which has operations in 16 circles and Aircel, which currently offers services in 9 circles, will be soon be able to expand their footprint to all the 21 and 22 telecom circles, respectively.