Indian business tycoon Anil Ambani is in talks to take English Premier League club Newcastle United, it was reported on Sunday. British weekly newspaper News of the World said Ambani, the sixth richest man in the world, is already in negotiations with club owner Mike Ashley for a reported 260 million pounds (US $ 510 million) takeover.
Multinational mobile companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and LG, who dominate the mobile handset space with over 75 per cent of the market share, might face a new challenge. This time it's not from Chinese unbranded products, which have been flooding the Indian market.
Rahul has singled out Anil Ambani several times for winning the Rafale defence contract from the Narendra Modi government, alleging favouritism and corruption.
On September 1, 2007, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reigned in the 'don't call regime' with setting up of the NDNC. Subscribers had to register with the NDNC by calling the respective service provider and the marketing calls were to stop within the next 45 days. However, even after 10 months, unsolicited calls still haunt mobile users.
Reliance Communications Ltd and Research In Motion on Tuesday announced the launch of BlackBerry Curve 8330 smartphone in India.
Reports by CAG earlier on the 2008 telecom licence scam had resulted in the cancellation of 122 licences.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
In fact, both the Classmate PC projects (from Intel) and OLPC pilots (with Reliance Communications) besides low-cost initiatives from players like Novatium, Encore, Xenitis and Allied Computers are gathering momentum independent of each other in the country.
Buoyed by the entry of new telecom players and entry of Reliance Communications in the GSM space, the Indian telecom industry clocked the highest subscriber-addition in a month, by adding 15.87 million subscribers in March 2009.
Like Bharti, India 's largest mobile operator, Reliance has global aspirations. After losing last year's keenly-contested $11bn takeover of Hutchison Essar, India 's fourth-largest mobile operator, to Vodafone of the UK, Reliance needs to raise its game or risk becoming an also-ran.
The world's largest independent telecom masts player GTL Infrastructure on Wednesday said its expects to complete the merger of Reliance Infratel's tower operations with itself by the middle of next month.
Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani has proposed that the government should make it mandatory for telecom service providers to surrender additional spectrum that they are not utilising. Putting his proposal into practice, Ambani has also conveyed his willingness to surrender the extra 1.8 MHz spectrum that his group has in the Bihar circle.
The government on Tuesday tabled in Parliament the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) report on 2G spectrum allocation, whose reported extracts have created a political storm and led to the resignation of Telecom Minister A Raja.
Though the controversy over the security of BlackBerry services is yet to be resolved, the four operators that offer these services - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BPL Mobile and Reliance Communications - have added over 50,000 customers in the four months since the problems began. Before this, the push-mail service, which was introduced in India in October 2004, had 400,000 subscribers according to industry estimates.
Reliance HR Services (RHRS), a human resources company formed by the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG), will recruit half a million people for the group in the next four years.
Riding on a strong stock market rally, Anil Ambani-led diversified business conglomerate Reliance Group has crossed Rs one lakh crore market valuation.
Telecom firms like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and MTNL have shown interest to start IPTV services, where television signal is carried to homes through telecom lines and broadband.
Reliance Communications hopes roping in Hrithik Roshan will help separate them from the clutter. However, brand consultants and advertising veterans are sceptical.
Reliance Infratel, the tower business arm of the group's telecom entity Reliance Communications, has allowed the regulatory approval to lapse without coming out with an IPO and is unlikely to revive the process soon. A company spokesperson did not take queries on lapse of the approval period and on whether the company was looking to revive the process by filing a fresh draft IPO prospectus with market regulator Sebi.
This new service will compete with several other providers, including Reliance Communications. But VSNL officials were upbeat about their offering.
On 60th Independence Day, it is bonanza time for telecom subscribers with operators rolling out a range of services.
The companies are looking at tapping solar power, wind energy and bio-fuels, including fish and vegetable oil, to run base transceiver systems in areas with poor power supply.
The much-awaited auction for 3G spectrum has begun. Top telecom operators including Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, RCom and Tatas are in the fray.
All the top telecom firms, including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Aircel, RCom and Tatas would be participating in the e-auction process, the first of its kind in the world, to acquire 3G spectrum for which the auction begins on April 9.
Ambani siblings' war intensified on Saturday with the younger Anil's group warning to retaliate in case Mukesh-led Reliance Industries goes legal with its claim on the potential multi-billion dollar amalgamation deal that the former is pursuing with South African telecom giant MTN.
A possible merger of Reliance Communications of India and South Africa's MTN could see Anil Ambani become the enlarged group's chairman and biggest shareholder with a stake of almost 35 per cent.
The move should help as many as 25 aspirants, including Unitech, Parsvnath, DLF, HFCL and Shyam Telecom, seeking to enter the lucrative GSM mobile services space.
Two regional CDMA players - HFCL in Punjab and Shyam Telecom in Rajasthan - have deposited fee for their GSM spectrum as per the dual technology permitted by the government. HFCL deposited Rs 151.75 crore (Rs 1.51 billion) for Punjab circle, while Shyam gave about Rs 32 crore for the Rajasthan circle.
Corporate giant Tatas on Tuesday asked the government to seek surrender of excess spectrum lying with GSM operators, a line being aggressively pursued by Reliance Communications chief Anil Ambani. With this, the top two CDMA players have joined forces against GSM operators like Bharti and Vodafone to seek return of spectrum beyond the contractual amount of 6.2 Mhz.
The FIR was lodged by the Lucknow Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee after an emergent meeting held in Lucknow on Monday, official sources said on Tuesday.
Tata Steel and Anil Ambani-led& Reliance Communications raised $1.375 billion through overseas borrowings and convertible bonds in September, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India. Tata Steel, which early this year acquired Anglo-Dutch firm Corus to become the sixth-largest maker of the alloy, raised $875 million for overseas acquisition through foreign currency convertible bonds.
The Department of Telecommunication and mobile service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications failed to reach a consensus on the spectrum issue during a meeting held on Wednesday. According to sources, Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani raised the issue of extra spectrum being held by GSM operators. He asked how over 6.2 MHz of radio waves have been given to GSM players beyond their contractual agreement.
The Department of Telecommunications has called a meeting of the heads of all leading telecom companies offering GSM technology services on November 21 to resolve contentious issues that have arisen following recent changes in telecom policy.
Virtually bringing the entire industry into the picture, telecom tribunal TDSAT on Monday directed Reliance Communications, HFCL, Shyam Telelinks, BSNL and MTNL to become a party to a petition challenging changes to spectrum allocation norms among others.
Telecom service provider Reliance Communications on Friday said it has launched an international calling card for the United States and Canada through which users can make calls to these countries at a rate of Rs 1.99 per minute.
The company will also make a $500 million (Rs 2,000 crore) investment through the acquired company in the next 2-3 years to build and acquire WiMax networks across 50 countries. Worldwide interoperability for microwave access or WiMax is a telecommunications technology that provides wireless data over long distances through various mediums. This is the third acquisition by the company as it had acquired US-based ethernet services provider Yipes Holdings for $300 million.
Spectrum auction ends, brings Rs 1.09 tln to govt kitty.
As the reports trickled that the permission for the use of twin-technology would benefit the aspiring Reliance Communication, an Anil Ambani group company, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) shot a letter to the government saying that such a permission was against the existing policy and is tantamount to favouring a few.
Liquor and airline baron Vijay Mallya, auto major Hero Honda and leading telecom company Reliance Communications have started negotiations with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to buy the rights of teams that will play in the Twenty20 tourney, which was announced to counter Subhash Chandra's Indian Cricket League (ICL).
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