Telecom major Bharti Airtel has signed a definitive agreement with Loop Mobile to acquire the latter’s operations in Mumbai.

The company had in February announced that it would buy the business and assets of Loop Mobile in Mumbai under a strategic agreement.

The company, however, is yet to get the regulatory approvals for the agreement.

“With reference to the earlier announcement dated February 18, 2014 titled ‘Airtel and Loop Mobile announce agreement to create Mumbai’s largest mobile network’, Bharti Airtel has now informed the BSE that the Company has signed the definitive agreement with Loop Mobile (India),” Airtel said in a filing to the BSE.

As per market estimates, the agreement is worth R700 crore though the company did not disclose the size of the deal.

?Third-largest telco globally soon?

Bharti Airtel said it is likely to become the world’s third-largest telecom operator soon, after China Mobile and UK-based Vodafone, as it continues with a strong subscriber growth.

“We are very close. It is a matter of one or two million (subscribers). Maybe, by next few weeks or months, we should be there,” Bharti Enterprises MD Manoj Kohli said on the sidelines of an IMI event.