Sistema, the Russian-owned firm behind Indian CDMA operator MTS, has confirmed it will shutter operations in 10 regional Indian zones.

The operator had all but one of its 22 regional licences cancelled by India’s Supreme Court in February 2012 and last week was unsuccessful in overturning the decision.

MTS will close networks in Assam, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Jammu & Kashmir, Madhya Pradesh, North-East, Orissa and Punjab. These zones account for about 15 per cent of the operator’s 14 million Indian customers and 10 per cent of its roughly 3,000 employees.

But MTS will continue operations in the remaining 11 zones where it is present as hopes to repurchase licences in fresh auctions next month.

“I would like to confirm our intention to participate in the upcoming spectrum auction in March 2013,” said Vsevolod Rozanov, CEO of Sistema Shyam TeleServices (SSTL). “We are in the process of drawing an optimal strategy for the auction based on several factors including spectrum pricing, levels of competition etc.”

“The go forward plan includes continuing with the company’s focus on its data centric-voice enabled strategy in select circles,” he added.

Sistema has previously been linked with a takeover of larger Indian mobile operator Aircel in order to stay in the market. But a recent government move to halve the reserve price for 800MHz CDMA airwaves in the upcoming auctions has significantly reduced the cost of Sistema buying back its licences.