New Delhi, Aug. 14 (PTI): Competition in the cellular market, including the national capital, could soon be hotting up with the department of telecom clearing a proposal to issue a letter of intent (LoI) to mobile operator Aircel in eight of the 11 circles it had applied for licences.

The mobile operator, in which Malaysian firm Maxis holds a majority stake, can enter the Delhi circle any time with DoT clearing its application for the LoI, which is a pre-requisite for a licence.

Aircel had applied for licences in 11 circles to create a pan-India telecom footprint. The company will be the seventh operator to foray into the Delhi circle, which has more than six million cellular subscribers.

All the national operators, including Bharti Airtel, Hutch, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Tata Teleservices have already rolled out their services in Delhi.

The department of telecom has approved the issue of the LoI to Aircel for unified access service license in eight circles.

“Seven applications have been received from Aircel for grant of unified access service licence (UASL) in Mumbai, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh service areas. The case has been submitted for approval for the issue of LoI to Aircel for award of UASL in respect of Mumbai, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Delhi, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh,” DoT said in its internal note.

Aircel’s cellular services are operational in Tamil Nadu, Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Northeast and Jammu and Kashmir.