New Delhi, Jan. 8

The stalemate in the telecom sector could soon end with the Department of Telecom set to issue letters of intent to new players.

Unitech, STel, Shyam Telelink, HFCL and Sterlite are among those which are likely to get LoIs as per a list of qualified companies prepared by the DoT. As many as 46 companies had applied for new licences, most of which had approached DoT in September last year. Some of the applications have been held back due to awaited security clearances or due to lack of net worth of the company.

The DoT move to give LoIs follows an in-principle assurance from the GSM operators that they will not oppose the decision as long as the application for new licences from existing operators are also cleared.

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