Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio Infocomm and five other telecom firms will battle it out at the spectrum auction tomorrow, from which the government expects to garner at least Rs 11,300 crore (Rs 113 billion).
Seeking urgent steps by mobile operators to check call drops, regulator TRAI on Wednesday said their performance would be reviewed after 15 days and warned it will "cross the bridge" if they fail to do the needful.
The Sensex soared 402 points higher to end at 25,720 and the Nifty surged 130 points to close at 7,819.
In the broader markets, the BSE Midcap and Smallcap indices extended gains and were up over 1% each
Mukesh Ambani said the Digital India initiative has the potential to transform the lives of 1.2 billion Indians using the power of digital technology.
Hutch and Aircel jointly lead the customer expectations ranking, ahead of Reliance, Tatas and Bharti as per the latest survey by TNS Celltrack, while MTNL has the dubious distinction of being the last on this overall list covering 13 circles.
Raises cap of market share for merged entity to 50%, spectrum trading allowed, with riders.
Telecom shares rallied on hopes that they would hike tariffs after huge investments to acquire spectrum.
Among other segments, home broadband subscriptions have picked up and the virtual private network service, too, increased by around 15 per cent.
Large and small businesses alike have delivered low-key performances.
When on October 24, the Supreme Court, on a petition moved by the government, ordered payment of past dues according to its new definition of AGR, the country's second-biggest carrier Vodafone-Idea Ltd warned of shut down if no relief is given. The total dues for the industry ran into a whopping Rs 1.47 lakh crore. For an industry that has come from 7-8 operators to just three private players and state-owned fourth operator, the warning by Vodafone-Idea sounded like a death knell.
Investors will remain cautious ahead of F&O expiry.
The Cabinet approved giving Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea Ltd and Reliance Jio an option to avail of a two-year moratorium on payments they were supposed to make in yearly installments for the spectrum bought in auctions.
Analysts have pointed out that with the dues arising out of the SC judgment there could soon be only two private telcos in the country, and not three - Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea - as now.
The companies have offered to pay upfront the principal amount due for licence fees and spectrum usage charges (SUCs) on the basis of adjusted gross revenue (AGR). This amount will not include the interest, the penalty, and the interest on the penalty.
The move comes against the backdrop of the US and some of its allies banning the purchase of Chinese telecom gear over security concerns and pressuring other countries to follow suit.
ONGC was the top gainer which surged over 4% followed by Axis, SBI, CIL
Vodafone's long-pending tax dispute with the government might be heading for a resolution, with the finance ministry considering changing the Income-Tax Act's retrospective amendment and taxing indirect transfer of assets prospectively from 2012, the year the law was clarified.
Jio has accused incumbent telecom operators for not providing the required number of equipment to connect its mobile network with theirs
Surprisingly, RIL scrip also fell by 2.73 per cent to 1,029.15, becoming the second biggest loser in the index
Spectrum auction took off on Wednesday from Rs 58,980.29 crore (Rs 589.80 billion) mark with demand for the premium 900 Mhz band seemingly tapering off at the end of 56 rounds.
This is the first time airwaves in 700 Mhz band will be put up for auction
The country's wireless subscriber base fell to 87.05 crore at the end of September, registering the first drop in five months, after Reliance Communications deactivated services of over 1 crore "unprofitable" users.
Scientists associated with Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), the government panel that conducts research on different variants of the coronavirus, said they were surprised at noted virologist Shahid Jameel's decision to quit the group and wondered whether he was disillusioned with the government's handling of the pandemic.
'We still have 30,000-40,000 cases.' 'It is plateauing, but the number should definitely come down more so that we can convert the pandemic into an endemic.'
The profit boost for studios will in large part be driven by the rush for local-language content from platforms like Netflix Inc
A liberalised spectrum allows operators to use any technology to deliver services like 3G and 4G.
BSE Bankex and Telecom indices led the fall.
Bharti to spend Rs 1,600 cr for spectrum payout over 10 yrs; Telenor to service its own debt.
The same set of companies had reported 3.8 per cent annual net profit growth in the previous quarter and 7.5 per cent annual growth in the same quarter last financial year.
Anil Ambani severely criticised the attitude of GSM operators and raised the issue of returning the extra spectrum again.
On a weekly basis, the Sensex climbed 749.86 points or 2.69 per cent and the NSE Nifty soared 237.10 points or 2.76 per cent
Taking the government head on, four GSM mobile operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Spice -- have decided to "unitedly" approach the Delhi High Court against telecom tribunal TDSAT's interim order not to stay the spectrum allocation process.
With slower than expected growth in smartphone penetration, operators and OEMs are joining hands to provide affordable mobile devices with attractive offers.
Analysts at rating agency ICRA say the debt level of the telecom companies is very high and the ecosystem for the premium band is not in place.
Sensex ended above 26,000 led by telecom shares amid TRAI's spectrum sharing norms.
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