India’s Supreme Court has rejected petitions to review its decision to void all 122 of the controversial GSM licenses that were awarded in 2008.
Seven mobile networks affected by the license cancellation including Videocon, STel, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices, Unitech Wireless, Sistema Shyam and Etisalat DB had filed separate petitions.
The court declined the petition stating that it could not find any material error in its earlier decision.
Unitech Wireless and SSTL confirmed that they will file curative petitions to challenge Supreme Court’s order.
The operators are also appealing against a secondary aspect of the ruling that covers how the licenses are to be re-sold by the government. That verdict is expected in a couple of weeks.
In addition, the government is seeking a review of the order requiring the licenses to be resold within 90 days.
It wants at least 400 days to arrange the auction, although that would leave the affected networks seeking to reenter the market without any licenses for over a year.