Over eight years after third generation (3G) mobile technology made its commercial debut in Japan, Indian phone users got only a taste of official flip-flop on roll-out of the service during 2009 that also saw CBI raiding telecom ministry over spectrum allocation.
"There has been interest from various foreign companies in the planned 3G auction," telecom minister A Raja told reporters in Geneva, exuding confidence that the auction of 3G and Wi-Max spectrum would generate at least Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) of revenue for the Indian government.
"China and India will certainly see a recovery in H2-09, but high-income nations will take longer to recover from the current downturn," Jeffrey told PTI on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Noting that mobile telephony is the single most powerful transformational tool in the development, Sachs said that it is one of the fastest growing sectors currently in the world.
Responding to a communication from Finance Secretary D Subbarao on Wednesday, Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura shot off a strongly worded letter on Thursday, saying: "It is therefore surprising that the ministry of finance has now decided to express its reservations on procedural aspects."
Coca Cola is planning more investments in India on top of its Rs 1000 crore budget for this market. The incremental investment will be made in the next three years. This is with the view of making India amongst Coke's top five markets. Coke regards India as a 'profitable' venture that is adding to the balance sheet of the global giant. India is currently at number 17 in the list of countries where Coke is present and had emerged among the best markets for Coke during 2007.
Sunil Mittal is confident that Airtel will retain its numero uno position, inspite of Vodafone's competition.
Bharti Enterprises, which had last year announced a $2.5-billion investment for its retail venture, is expected to announce its final plans, including that of opening of the first store, within the next two months.
Sunil Mittal opined that all new GSM players will lose out in 3 years and Vodafone almost echoed this view.
Nokia has launched a new series of cell phones that also double as navigation devices.
Coke to invest $250 m in India in 3 years
The government is likely to make mandatory the sharing of telecom infrastructure such as towers in Delhi and Mumbai, a move that would bring down the cost of setting up of towers and enable faster roll out of services in rural areas.
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