Idea Cellular of Aditya Birla group has received the letter of intent from the Indian government for offering services in the Mumbai metro circle.

At present Bharti, Tata, Hutch, BPL, MTNL and Reliance already offer mobile services in Mumbai. Idea Cellular will launch its services in Mumbai by January.

The applicant company and its promoters have submitted certificate undertaking for no substantial equity (more than 10 per cent) in more than one licensed company in the same service areas. The case is submitted for the award of unified service access licence in Mumbai service areas, the department of telecom said in a communication.

Idea Cellular could not enter Mumbai earlier as its erstwhile partner Tata group had a presence in Mumbai through their CDMA venture Tata Indicom. But with Tatas exiting the venture and Birla group taking over the company, Idea lost no time in applying for the unified licence.

An unified licence will enable the company to offer all kinds of services — mobile (GSM or CDMA), fixed line and broadband.

The grant of LoI is certainly positive for the company which is looking for a pan-Indian presence. It has applied for license for all the remaining 12 circles.

It currently has operations in eight circles — Haryana, UP (West), Delhi, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Goa, MP and Chattisgarh, Andhra and Kerala and has procured license for three more circles, Himachal Pradesh, UP (East) and Rajasthan.