NTT DoCoMo to stay with Tata Teleservices: Report

Japan's largest telecom operator NTT DoCoMo in a media interview said it has no plans to sell any part of its stake in the joint venture with Tata Teleservices and stated it will stay invested in the firm.

"We were thrown for a loop when we heard about (the auctioning of the revoked licenses and the rule changes), but we plan to hold on to our stake. We're aware that growth may take time," DoCoMo President Kaoru Kato was quoted in a Wall Street Journal report.

NTT DoCoMo holds 26 percent stake in Tata Teleservices and rest of the stake is with Tata Group.

The Supreme Court has cancelled three CDMA licences of Tata Teleservices in its order of February 2, 2012 which quashed 122 2G permits. Later, a section of industry raised question on 19 GSM licences of Tata Teleservices and called for their cancellation.

According to sources, Department of Telecom recently received legal opinion on the matter which said that GSM permits of Tata Teleservices were not included in the licences that Supreme Court found faulty and cancelled.

Kato also denied to be in talks with Russian conglomerate Sistema, which holds majority stake in Indian telecom firm Sistema Shyam Teleservices.