Titan, HCL Tech and State Bank of India were also among the laggards. However, Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, ICICI Bank, Power Grid, HDFC Bank and ITC were the gainers.
New customer additions by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel pushed the Indian telecom subscriber base past 120.5 crore in June, according to a Trai report released on Tuesday. The wireless subscriber base grew marginally to over 117 crore and wireline connections in the country increased to 3.51 crore in June from 116.89 crore and 3.47 crore, respectively, in May, as per data released in Trai's subscriber report for June.
Bharti Airtel may end up cumulatively bidding for more spectrum than market leader Reliance Jio in the upcoming auctions. This is owing to its need for spectrum renewal, and a requirement for 900 MHz in a few circles, analysts have said. Despite the muted bidding expected in the upcoming auctions, Airtel may end up making more bids than Jio, they added.
With seven million new subscribers, India accounted for the highest net addition of mobile subscriptions globally in the second quarter of 2023, according to the August edition of Ericsson Mobility. Among national markets, India was followed by China with five million and the US with three million subscribers. The subscriber penetration in India, however, stood at 79 per cent, compared to 120 per cent in China, the report said.
Reliance Jio has sent a second legal opinion to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on the subject of the potential allocation of satellite spectrum. The letter is written by retired Supreme Court Justice L Nageshwara Rao and argues in favour of auctions, stating that any other method for allocating spectrum apart from auctions could be constitutionally unsound. Business Standard has reviewed the letter.
Shares of telecom services providers - Reliance Industries (parent of Reliance Jio), Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea - have shed up to 23 per cent so far in the current calendar year as growth in the wireless subscriber segment begins to plateau amid higher tariffs and rising costs of smartphones. By comparison, the benchmark S&P BSE Sensex, and sectoral index BSE Telecom have dipped 1.8 per cent, and 12.6 per cent, respectively, ACE Equity data shows. However, analysts expect the trend to reverse soon as telecom services providers focus on the next leg of growth -- fixed broadband (FBB) segment.
India's first auction of 5G spectrum, that powers ultra-high data speeds, is currently underway with a total of 72 GHz (gigahertz) of radiowaves worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore up for bidding. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and a unit of billionaire Gautam Adani's flagship Adani Enterprises are in the race to bid for 5G spectrum, that offers speeds about 10 times faster than 4G, lag-free connectivity, and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time. In addition to powering ultra-low latency connections, which allow downloading full-length high-quality video or movie to a mobile device in a matter of seconds (even in crowded areas), Fifth Generation or 5G would enable solutions such as e-health, connected vehicles, more-immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming among others.
Providing services like broadband connectivity, cable TV, enterprise solutions, and payment wallets is the need of the hour for telcos, and a second wave of consolidation is upon the industry, a rating agency said on Tuesday. India Ratings and Research said the sector, which was battered following the aggressive entry of Reliance Jio, will continue showing signs of recovery amid conducive regulatory environment and maintained a "stable" outlook for the industry in FY22. The second round of consolidation (Consolidation 2.0) is kicking-in in the industry, which will bring a transformation in the business models of telecom companies, leading to the evolution of incumbents from the providers of traditional voice-only services to complete digital solutions for households, it said.
'I'm a very positive and optimistic human being.' 'You put a pile of garbage in front of me and I will find a flower in it.'
Over the three-month period, Airtel's stock price has rallied from Rs 432 to Rs 540, while Vodafone Idea has risen from Rs 9.2 to Rs 11.8 per share.
Jio is planning to win over 350 million 2G feature phone users by launching a smartphone at a fraction of the current cost.
As per the latest data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Vodafone Idea -- born last year from the merger of older operators Vodafone India and Idea Cellular -- continues to be the largest operator with 38.75 crore consumers and 33.36 per cent market share in the wireless segment as on May 31, 2019.
The incumbents Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea recorded adjusted gross revenue of Rs 10,701.5 crore and Rs 9,808.92 crore, respectively, during the quarter.
Their accumulated debt stood at Rs 1,85,720 crore in March.
While Airtel may be pushed to to No 3, Jio will find it mighty difficult to beat the new entity.
The three companies for sale are Reliance Communications, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel.
These vendors will plan, design, deploy and maintain 3G-HSPA (third generation, high speed packet access) networks in 13 telecom circles where the company has won 3G licences, Bharti Airtel said in a statement.
These customers will be unable to meet the lowest recharge requirements for Jio, meaning they will either exit the market or migrate to BSNL/MTNL.
The auditor of government accounts, CAG, has faulted the Income Tax department for levying Rs 708.6 crore less in taxes from companies including State Bank of India, Tata Sons, Mahindra & Mahindra and Bharti.
SoftBank will hold majority stake in the joint venture.
'The government is unwilling or unable to provide the kind of relief that Vodafone India is asking for.'
Apple's iPhone, the touch screen handset that acquired a cult status in the United States and other Western countries, will be available to Indian mobile users through private telecom operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar from August 22, giving competitors like Nokia, Samsung and others a run for their money.
Reliance Jio Infocomm, expected to start commercial operations in the Indian telecom space in the next few months, had a net worth of Rs 5,026.16 crore, the company said in a statement submitted to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Monday.
The way the story went, customers would get dramatically lower prices for everyday groceries (something that takes up 45 per cent of the household budget) and farmers would earn at least a third or more as big retailers began procuring from them directly. But none of this has really happened, and may not either.
The BSE Sensex jumped 70.42 points to end at 34,503.49, while the broader NSE Nifty finished at 10,651.20, up 19 points.
Tata Teleservices Ltd on Wednesday launched a new product 'Don't Stop Mobile' across 20 circles allowing prepaid customers to make free outgoing calls for a period of two years to any Tata Indicom mobile or Tata Indicom fixed phone within the state.
The chairman and group managing director of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Bharti Mittal, was chosen the best Asian Telecom CEO
The mobile phone user base in the country has crossed the 33 million mark at the end of the last fiscal with Reliance topping the list with over 7.2 million followed by Bharti with 6.5 million users.
The launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd last September, particularly the tariff war it has unleashed on its competitors, has deepened the crisis facing India's telecom sector. One offshoot of this is the major drop in earnings reported by industry leaders Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular with each passing quarter. Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com tells the story in numbers.
Following the foray of Essel and Essar groups into the online lottery segment, another leading conglomerate Forbes Group on Friday said it will enter the segment and launch its product 'DhanDhanaDhan' next month.
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SBI will hold 30 per cent in RIL joint venture
SBI said the crisis in Grece would have little impact on the bank.
Tech Mahindra and United Spirits will replace them in the 50-share index of the National Stock Exchange with effect from March 28.
TCS heads top-10 ranking despite being sole loser; RIL, ITC take second & third place respectively
Funds will be raised via non-cumulative preference shares issued to Tata Sons on rights basis
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday held a one-on-one meeting with senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader L K Advani, with whom he is not on the best of terms since the party patriarch opposed his elevation as poll campaign head.
Analysts expect structural risks such as risk to voice revenues, steep correction in data realisations, capex spend and rise in churn and subsequent increase in costs to continue in the medium term
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