Russian Foreign Ministry: delicensing AFK Sistema's Indian subsidiary unfair
MOSCOW. Feb 9 (Interfax) - Russia's Foreign Ministry has argued that an Indian court ruling to delicense a subsidiary of a Russian mobile operator was unfair and has expressed hope for a revision of the ruling that "would have a favorable effect on the attractiveness of the Indian market for Russian investors in general."
"On February 2 of this year, the Supreme Court of India revoked 122 licenses of telecommunications operators in India, 21 of which were licenses belonging to the cellphone operator Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd. (SSTL), a subsidiary of the AFK Sistema company, which operates in India under the MTS brand name," the ministry said in a statement on Thursday.
The ministry cited the court as arguing the licenses failed to comply with Indian law.
"This means that SSTL was called to account for the fact that the licensing procedures established earlier by Indian telecommunications agencies failed to comply with the legislation of the country. AFK Sistema and SSTL are planning to dispute the court ruling," the ministry said.
"We expect a resolution of the SSTL situation that would have a favorable effect on the attractiveness of the Indian market for Russian investors in general."
"Currently the company is operating normally," the ministry said.
"SSTL became the first joint Russian-Indian project in the local consumer market. The company has earned the reputation of a reliable cellphone operator, which provides mobile services for more than 15 million users throughout India and mobile broadband Internet access services for more than 1.2 million people in 200 major cities of the country," it said.