The auction for Broadband Wireless Access started on Monday with 11 players, including Bharti, Vodafone, RCom and Tatas, in the race to acquire the two slots on offer.
Mukesh Ambani's Jio Financial Services (JFS) is set to seek shareholders' approval for its leasing subsidiary to acquire telecom equipment and devices worth Rs 36,000 crore ($4.33 billion) from Reliance Retail. Jio Leasing Services Limited (JLSL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of JFS, plans to enter the device leasing business, and the equipment will be deployed in broadband wireless connectivity and other services.
Its entry into the broadband wireless segment could add $1 billion to profits.
There are opportunities to repeat the success of NTP '99 with 3G and Broadband Wireless Access, says Shyam Ponappa.
The Unified Licence for all 22 Service Areas across India will make the company the first telecom operator in the country to get pan India Unified Licence, the company said in a statement.
Reliance Jio accuses COAI of malafide intention.
Telecom players have started protesting against government's move to allow Voice over Internet Protocol. They say Reliance will be the biggest beneficiary.
Reliance Infotel to be the biggest beneficiary.
The Cellular Operators Association of India said it would not take any legal step on the issue, unlike what it had said earlier.
Will Mukesh Ambani disrupt the telecom market by offering consumers voice calls at rock-bottom tariff?
Malaysia's leading telecom operator, Axiata, has backed out of its negotiations to pick up a substantial stake in broadband wireless access operator Tikona Digital.
Vendors say Infotel Broadband close to signing tower leasing deals with Anil Ambani company
While Reliance/Infotel Broadband stands to gain if Qualcomm is forced out of the BWA race, will the potential Indian consumer of broadband wireless services gain from this unseemly tussle? That is a question that remains unanswered.
Qualcomm had received its internet service provider licence last month, after a delay of 18 months, with a validity period of 20 years after a Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal direction to DoT.
The move is being considered after growing clamour from competing 4G operators for a level playing field in relation to Qualcomm.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday said it has acquired 49 per cent stake in Qualcomm's broadband wireless access (BWA) business in India for USD 165 million (about Rs 922 crore).
The Finance Ministry, which is under immense pressure to meet the fiscal deficit target during the current financial year, has also written a letter to the department of telecommunication to auction spectrum to earn additional revenues.
The move is significant as it would extend the power of CAG -- set up to audit central and state government departments as well as PSUs -- to private sector companies.
Telecom major Alcatel-Lucent on Wednesday said they are in talks with various service providers, including Reliance Industries and Tikona Digital Networks for deploying infrastructure for mobile broadband services.
Reliance Industries (RIL) has cut estimates for proven gas reserves in its Krishna-Godavari block off the east coast by 6.7 per cent, to 3.67 trillion cubic ft (tcf), the company said in its annual report.
Both Long Term Evolution Time Division Duplex and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access are broadband wireless access technologies.
The government has raised over Rs 38,300 crore (Rs 383 billion) from the 16-day long auction for Broadband Wireless Access spectrum, which closed on Friday.
Next-generation security and disaster management business seems to be next on the radar of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, which will utilise its 4G telecom services for this new initiative.
The department of space and the department of telecommunication are at loggerheads over the use of 2.5 MHz spectrum band for commercial operations, which DoS claims will interfere with sensitive satellite communications.
According to the PwC report titled -- Value Added Service: The Next Wave -- it is now time for India to evolve from the well established mobile messaging and commoditised voice play to focus on customer segmentation based data play.
"To use this spectrum, BSNL has gone for a franchise model on a revenue-sharing basis. As per the provision of expression of interest and agreement signed with the franchisee companies, they are required to pay amortised value of spectrum/ cost to BSNL on monthly basis," Minister of State for IT & Telecom Gurudas Kamat said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has rejected a proposal by Communications Minister A Raja for refund of the Rs 29,598 crore paid by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited for third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.
The government is scheduled to borrow Rs 4.57 lakh crore (Rs 4.57 trillion) from markets this fiscal and it maintains that this level of debt would be raised.
The government on Friday said successful bidders for BWA spectrum -- including Infotel, which was acquired by Mukesh Ambani-led RIL -- will get the frequency next week, paving the way for subscribers to get mobile broadband services by the end of this year.
This investment, up from $20 billion seen last year, would be for continuing the development of 3G, Broadband Wireless Access and expansion of existing networks, said R K Pathak, secretary of the Telecom Equipment & Services Export Promotion Council, in Singapore at the CommunicAsia 2010, a Singapore exhibition for global telecom industries.
Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, is understood to be in talks with leading Indian telecom companies like Tata Communications (formerly VSNL), Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications that could bid for broadband wireless access spectrum to be auctioned by the government in January 2010.
The reserve price is Rs 1,750 crore for a pan-India BWA spectrum licence.
The vacation of additional 2G and 3G spectrum may generate additional revenue of about Rs 80,000 crore (Rs 800 billion) on the basis of prices according to spectrum auctioned last year, DoT said in a note for the empowered group of ministers.
The Budget for 2010-11 estimates the fiscal deficit, which represents excess government expenditure over its revenue, at Rs 3,81,408 crore or 5.5 per cent of GDP.
Qualcomm India got licences for four markets, including Delhi and Mumbai, apart from Kerala and Haryana.
BSNL will use the investment for mobile expansion and for services like 3G, broadband, wireless broadband, IPTV, WiMAX, mobile commerce (m-commerce), value-added landline, Enterprise Resource Planning and others.
Revenues from 3G and Broadband Wireless Access spectrum auction has helped government reduce the deficit.
Auction of 3G spectrum (air waves) is slated to commence on January 14, but has been plagued by differences between Defence and Telecom Ministries over vacation of spectrum for civilian use.
Two years after having allotted third-generation (3G) spectrum without any contest to its own telecom companies, on the promise that they'd match the prices later paid by private sector winners of the auction for it, the communications ministry now wants them to get it for free.
Tata Teleservices has become the first service provider to offer mobile TV on high speed broadband wireless by launching Photon TV, which allows users to access channels on desktops and laptops.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances