Confirming the move, Mr Shyamal Ghosh, chairman, Telecom Commission said: "The reorganisation is being done for administrative purposes. While the licensing area will remain the same, there will be new chief general managers (CGMs) to facilitate routine administrative work." Each circle is a separate licensing area with a circle general manager as its head. As of now the telecom circles in the country are largely co-terminous with the state boundaries, except for the North-East area and pockets, such as Goa and Pondicherry, which are included in the states of Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu. In Uttar Pradesh, which has a large area, the state has two telecom areas already - UP West and UP East. With the formation of Uttaranchal, the UP West circle too is going to straddle two states. A DoT official says that while reorganisation of the telecom circles had been on the anvil for quite some time, the formation of the new states has triggered off the proposal.

He also added that it is "an internal reorganisation and is not likely to have any impact on the private basic and cellular operators." Private telecom operators too are not unduly worried at the proposal to carve out new "administrative" circles and are quite open to the idea of signing separate licence agreements for the new circles, if and when required. According to Mr Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and group managing director, Bharti Enterprises, "Following the creation of the new states, cellular and basic circles should also be carved out separately."