Four former Indian CEOs - three of them with telecom companies and one from soft drinks major Coca-Cola - have come together to start an angel partner firm, the Phi Group. Interestingly, the group has roped in two former bosses of global telecom companies for its international foray.
Sends team to discuss share auction with Sebi today Satyam board to sell stake via auction.
You can make free phone calls to anywhere in the world now. An Italian software company - Seven Rings International - is launching its Voice over Internet Protocol service in the country that provides free international phone calls, instant messages (chat) and text messages.
The hearing of the forgery case filed by British mobile solution firm Upaid against Satyam Computer Services is not scheduled for hearing during this week.
The hearing of the forgery case filed by British mobile solution firm Upaid against Satyam Computer Services is not scheduled for hearing during this week. This means no Satyam official -- neither B Ramalinga Raju who stepped down as its chairman after admitting to a financial fraud nor any other top executive -- is in the US for the case. When contacted, a Satyam spokesperson confirmed the development and added that Raju was 'very much' in Hyderabad.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has sought details of the arrangements made by Reliance Communications to restore bandwidth in case of submarine cable failure.
The 3G and broadband wireless access spectrum auction is running into further controversies with a section of telecom firms opposing the timing of the auction and internet companies planning to move the Prime Minister's Office.Even though Reliance Communications is ready with $1-billion investment for 3G rollout, it intends to focus on GSM rollout at the moment. The company is "receptive to the opinion that the 3G auctions should be held at a later date," a source said.
Slow internet connections will continue till Friday, even as restoration work on two cables out of the three that had severed a few days ago is under way. In India, the latency will continue till the end of the week, even for customers who have opted for redundancy bandwidth. For those who did not opt for redundancy bandwidth, the latency would be higher till the restoration.
Telecom infrastructure major GTL Infrastructure will use its Rs 2,200 crore cash reserves to buy back foreign currency convertible bonds.
However, this rule will not be applicable to companies holding licences for a period of three years, even if they acquire licences in other circles to expand their operations, according to sources close to the development. The suggestion was made by the DoT to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which will decide on making it a regulation, along with other suggestions on the lock-in period put forward by the licensor.
The move gains importance after two new telecom players -- Swan and Unitech -- sold stakes to foreign companies at high premiums after the allocation of spectrum. The Left parties had also accused Telecom Minister A Raja of underselling spectrum that cost the national exchequer around Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion).
Nokia has already increased prices of its base models by around 3-4 per cent. Industry analysts expect other manufacturers to follow suit. "The 25 per cent increase in the value of dollar vis-a-vis rupee (the dollar rose to Rs 50 this month from Rs 40 in March) has resulted in our import costs going up. This has compelled us to increase the prices of our old models launched during the last 6-9 months," said HTC (India) Country Head Ajay Sharma.
The cost cutting efforts by corporates, like restricting travel, would also be beneficial to the industry. HotSpot, the multi-brand technology retail chain of the Spice group, will increase its presence to around 3,000 outlets in the next two years.
Mobile subscribers are in for a bonanza as telecom tariffs are set to come down by at least 25-30 per cent by the year-end. Factors such as a fall in the availability of international bandwidth, entry of new licencees and mobile virtual network operators, and the move to permit unrestricted Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony will help bring down the tariffs.
At present, the cheapest business phone (with personal digital assistants) is priced at Rs 15,000, while high-end phones are available around Rs 13,000.
If you are a wireless (read Wi-Fi) internet user, you could easily be the next victim of a terrorist who accesses your computer to send emails, which can get you into trouble with authorities as was the case with some users in Mumbai.
Interconnect user charges are paid by one telecom service provider to another for enabling calls from one network to the other. The present interconnect charge of 30 paise per incoming minute was fixed in 2003. The price was considered high even then. Now, with equipment prices falling, a revision was called for, said industry analysts.
This is contrary to the BSNL technical committee's earlier approval to use the DR solutions of US-based Sun Microsystems and EMC Corporation. According to vendors close to the development, HP's DR solutions were not mentioned in the original purchase order issued to Ericsson, the main bidder.
The Ruias and other promoters own a 99.99 per cent stake through various companies in BPL Mobile Communications. They have already toned it down to 82.4 per cent, sources close to the development said. Now, the group is looking at further bringing it down to less than 70 per cent. This will make BPL Mobile Communications a shell company and diminish its values making its shares 'worthless,' says Vodafone.
The dispute between Vodafone and the Ruia-owned Essar Group, its 33 per cent partners in Vodafone-Essar, over ownership of BPL Mobile deepened this week after the UK-based telecom major alleged that Essar had altered the share structure of the Mumbai service provider in violation of a 2006 agreement