The slowdown in capital expansion is clearly seen in the current financial year. Large sectors such as cement, metal, oil and gas, power and telecom have provided negligible funds in the first quarter for their capex plans.
The government struck a cordial note with the GSM mobile lobby by agreeing on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai's) norms for spectrum allocation, a move described by rival CDMA player Reliance Communications (RCom) as "succumbing to pressure".
The COAI decision comes in the wake of Anil Ambani group company Reliance Communications and two other CDMA players receiving approvals to offer GSM services in their respective circles of operation from the Department of Telecom on Friday.
"We will start our GSM services soon. We have got spectrum in 13 circles in one or two months. We expect to get spectrum in all the circles barring one or two," TTSL managing director Anil Sardana said. RCom has launched GSM services in 11,000 towns, which would be extended to 22,000 towns in the next few months.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group on Thursday announced it that would build the world's largest next generation under-sea cable network with an investment of $1.5 bn (about Rs 7,000 crore) over the next three years.
Formally throwing its hat in the Reliance Communications said it was looking to acquire its rival Hutch-Essar and has received funding support for the proposed deal.
'While investors in Reliance have had to play a game of patience for long stretches, for Anil the challenge is to do what used to be his brother's forte -- generating cash by putting assets in the ground and making things,' says T N Ninan.
A DVR is a device that allows consumers to pause, record, play back, rewind and fast forward their favourite television shows. DTH companies are expected to slash DVRs box prices by nearly half to Rs 7,000-Rs 8,000 per unit. DVRs for cable channels would soon be available for between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000, industry sources said.
Telecom complaints against other players were below 500 in the first half of 2016.
New Delhi is also set to top its target of raising at least $13 billion.
Bulk of these customers use 2G phones and are still focused on voice services and might prove useful for both Bharti Airtel and the Idea-Vodafone combine.
Reliance Jio Infocomm is the only company which had in 2010 won a pan-India spectrum for 4G services but is yet to start commercial services.
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.
RCom and Tata Teleservices are the top net losers of subscribers under mobile number portability (MNP) services.
Even as telecom services are being restored in Kashmir Valley, mobile operators are offering free calling facility in the region.
If raters get away by moving from AAA to D overnight after companies default, as happened with DHFL, YES Bank, RCom, and IL&FS, it shows a complete breakdown in the rating system. It calls for exemplary punishment, not kid glove treatment, says Debashis Basu.
Mukesh's television unit has been aggressively wrapping up deals with hundreds of small players in a street-by-street effort to conquer that final hurdle in its cable TV drive
More asset sales may be only way out, though most of the group companies' ratings have been downgraded and their combined market value is now a fraction of their combined debt.
In what is in effect a deposit to be paid into court pending a full trial in the case, Judge David Waksman has set a six-week timeline for Anil to pay $100 million to three Chinese banks as he concluded that he did not accept Ambani's defence that his net worth was nearly zero or that his family would not step in to assist him when "push came to shove".
The figure is based on the base price of spectrum for the upcoming auction fixed by the TRAI and on the assumption that there will be no bidding war.
The sharing agreement will provide more bandwidth for RJIL to provide its high-speed 4G services.
Telcos may hike mobile rates to recover spectrum cost: Moody's
The Jio-Bharti battle will not just be limited to mobile telephony but will extend to the fibre to home space too.
The minister said the companies have given representation which is being examined by the DoT before taking a final decision.
Internet.org is a Facebook-led initiative
The Reserve Bank of India's action against Reliance Capital comes at a time when the Anil Ambani group was planning to make a comeback with the group company, Reliance Infrastructure, raising funds from the promoter family. As part of the comeback plan, Reliance Infrastructure received Rs 550 crore fund infusion from the Anil Ambani family. A month earlier, Reliance Power, a listed subsidiary of Reliance Infrastructure, also raised funds from its parent by issuing preferential allotment of shares thus increasing the stake of Reliance Infrastructure in the company.
Ambani said, in the telecom space, the focus will be on debt reduction, and the virtual merger did away with the need for major capex and will help towards this
The move will help telcos, including Reliance Jio, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular
India's telecom subscriber base grew to over 1.17 billion in October with Bharti Airtel maintaining its leadership in mobile subscriber addition that accounts for over 98 per cent of total connections in the country, according to the monthly report released by sector regulator Trai on Wednesday. This is the second consecutive month when Airtel added highest number of subscribers. In September, it had regained the leadership position in subscriber addition after a gap of four years. The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company added 3.67 million new customers in October, taking its total wireless customer base to 330.28 million in October 2020, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) report said.
The government on Friday unveiled long awaited Unified Licence norms that provide for delinking of spectrum from operational permits and allows companies to offer services using any technology.
Idea may have to shell out Rs 4,500 crore in cash
Thomas Ninad's bank account was defrauded of Rs 14 lakh under mysterious circumstances.
Banks do extensive investigation before declaring an account fraud; they owe it to us as they deal with our money. Why would they try to fix an innocent borrower? asks Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Under the UASL norms, spectrum is linked to licences, and a particular band of radio wave is restricted to be used in a particular technology
Smartphones are powered with free unlimited Internet browsing for a year.
In effect, companies which put their money in telecom in India would have done much better to keep the cash in bank and earn interest.
Most of the steep rate cuts announced might also not translate into bill savings for subscribers
RIL has signed an infrastructure sharing agreement with Reliance Communications (RCom, of the Dhirubhai Ambani group) to launch its services.
Even as lenders are getting ready to send more companies to bankruptcy courts from this week, several old cases are still awaiting resolution with no clarity on the completion of the process. This includes some high profile cases from the first list of 40 companies including Videocon Industries, Bhushan Power and Steel and Lavasa Corporation, sent by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for resolution. The delay is mainly due to litigation and late clarifications by various government agencies including the Reserve Bank of India and litigation by the Enforcement Directorate.
In the capital goods space, Punj Lloyd and KEC International could be in limelight for the expected turnround
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