SC orders existing 2G licences to continue till Sep 2012

This has come as a breather for the new telecom companies. The Supreme Court has today directed the government that all 2G license auction should be now conducted by the August 31 and the existing telecom licenses will remain valid until the September 7, reports CNBC-TV18's Malavika Jain.

It was earlier believed that mobile companies whose licences were cancelled by the Supreme Court may have to suspend operations from June 2.
The cancellation move will impact over 40 million customers of Uninor, 16 million of Sistema, 6 million of Idea Cellular and 5.5 million users of Videocon among others.
Telecom regulator Trai had directed mobile phone companies S Tel and Etisalat to continue operations until the validity of their licences expires.
Both telcos had asked their customers to shift to other service providers using mobile number portability, and had announced they were shutting down services after apex court had quashed their licences. (With inputs from agencies)