... with a maximum speed of 200 megabits per second (mbps) across the country for Rs 3,000 per month.
With a major network rollout on the cards, the government is not keen to change the pattern of tower monetisation for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), officials at the state-owned telecom-service provider said. The monetisation target in the telecom sector had to be revised owing to a change in BSNL's approach to mobile-phone tower monetisation, which had shifted from a sale-based model to a lease-based one.
Of the total proposed allocation, over Rs 1 lakh crore is meant for BSNL and MTNL-related expenses, including Rs 82,916 crore infusion in BSNL for technology upgradation and restructuring at BSNL.
Leh District Magistrate Santosh Sukhadeve posted this photo on his X account thanking the Indian Army's Fire and Fury Corps for successfully destroying 175 landmines in the villages of Phobrang, Yourgo and Lukung in Leh on Thursday, October 12, 2023.
The government is considering the option of handing over operations of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) to BSNL through an agreement, instead of pursuing a merger route, a source privy to the development said. A final call on this is likely to be taken in a month's time. The source said the option of handing over debt-laden MTNL's operations to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) through an agreement is being looked into.
'... there are challenges to overcome and the country needs money for that.'
If the fiscal deficit target of 4.9% of GDP has to be met for 2024-2025, which the government must in view of the uncertainties and challenges emerging both domestically and globally, the finance ministry may see in the composition of the current year's capex a sliver of hope, notes A K Bhattacharya.
Tata Consultancy Services-led consortium has bagged a Rs 15,000-crore contract from BSNL to deploy 4G network for the state-run telco. In a statement, TCS said it has received an "advance purchase order" valued over Rs 15,000 crore from BSNL.
Launched in March, it triggers re-verification of suspected fraudulent numbers. Failing re-verification, the number will be disconnected.
Apart from that, as part of efforts to provide assurance to 41 workers trapped in the Silkyara tunnel and relieve their stress, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has stepped in to provide them with a landline through which they can talk to their families.
The government believes the listing especially of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited would help improve the company's image and promote its growth. BSNL sources said there will not be any fresh equity, but only offloading by the government. The company will not get any proceeds from the IPO.
BSNL has warned that the fixed line telephone charges would go up considerably in case TRAI reduces the access deficit charge.n
Stocks of public sector undertakings (PSUs) have been on fire in the past year as investors cheered an improvement in key operating metrics and embraced counters of these state-owned enterprises, analysts suggest. The S&P BSE PSU Index has gained over 90 per cent in the past year, rising much higher than the S&P BSE Sensex, which has rose nearly 19 per cent during this period, according to ACE Equity data. The BSE PSU Index, reports show, has delivered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28 per cent (including dividends reinvestments) over five years and risen by almost 60 per cent in the past year.
Telecom service providers (TSPs) have begun to monitor and prevent spam calls since May 1, with the help of an artificial intelligence and machine language-based system acting on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) latest directive on the matter, its officials told Business Standard. Touted as the first big technological measure against the growing menace of unsolicited commercial communications, all TSPs have confirmed to Trai that they have rolled out the AI/ML tool. The filter system works on the distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform used by TSPs, and is set to go for incremental updates, rules for which will soon be released, they added.
Soon the websites of Air India, Delhi Tourism, Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Indian Railway Catering and Tourism will have the dot Bharat suffix.
Market concentration in the country's telecom sector continues to scale new heights despite government bailouts of public-sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), and private-sector Vodafone Idea. The combined revenue (or net sales) share of the country's top two telecom operators - Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio - in the sector's total reached an all-time high of nearly 72 per cent in FY23 from 70.4 per cent in FY22 and around 60 per cent in FY20. The net sales of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel India were Rs 1.67 trillion in FY23, up 18.6 per cent from the Rs 1.4 trillion a year earlier.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is set to secure a $2 billion deal from Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) to roll out its 4G and 5G services across the country. However, the final approvals from the publicly-owned telco may take a couple of months, sources in the know said. As part of the deal, TCS will develop 4G core and Radio Access Network (RAN) technology for BSNL's telecom services.
An apex committee under DoT Secretary R Chandraskehar has been set up to oversee the required policy decisions and institutional framework for an alliance between the two public sector undertakings which have been incurring losses.
At the end of Dec, the government had Rs 47,273 crore in the USO fund, with annual accruals of about Rs 6,000 crore.
Through messages via the BSNL network, the ministry plans to spread awareness among the public and ask people not to invest in suspicious companies.
The government believes heightened awareness among its staff could be the only effective way to counter attempts of foreign agencies.
New Delhi'sclaim that Pakistan websites triggered recent violence in Mumbai and provoked the exodus of the northeast community in Bengaluru may indeed be true. But India is left only pointing fingers and struggles to counter these attacks. Vicky Nanjappa finds out why
Company has around 70,000 towers and it will explore various business models that can realise value of its infrastructure
He says he's now confident of arresting its decline through various measures, including renewed focus on landline and mobile services, sorting out procurement problems and outsourcing unutilised space and tower management.
Now any customer can make audio video calls at will on any landline, mobile or Internet Protocol phone anywhere in the world, provided that both the ends have requisite video phone equipment.
In talks with BSNL, MTNL to float a firm in which it will hold 49 per cent.
Senior Indian Telecom Service officer A K Sinha on Thursday assumed charge as the chairman and managing director of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.
Airtel says to avail alternative routes to keep services on.
Other members of the search panel are secretary (personnel) Shantanu Consul, telecom secretary P J Thomas, IIT Chennai professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIM Ahmedabad professor Samir Baruha and IISC Bangalore professor N Balakrishnan.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Saturday carried out searches at the Vodafone office in Mumbai and Airtel office in Gurgaon after registering a case against ex-Telecom Secretary Shyamal Ghosh and the two telecom service providers for alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation during tenure of Pramod Mahajan as Telecom Minister.
During financial year 2011-12, MTNL was able to use only 14.66 per cent of the Budget estimate, while BSNL reported a better performance, according to a report by the standing committee on information technology.
Group of ministers to discuss proposal to split companies into three entities, move seen as precursor to merger.
The issue of which technology to use in wireless broadband services, TD-LTE or WiMax, is becoming keener.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the two big state-controlled telecom companies, have written to the government asking that it bear the entire cost of the additional spectrum assigned to the two giants.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have sent separate letters to the department of telecommunications (DoT), asking the government to bear the entire burden of nearly Rs 11,000 crore they need to fork out as one-time payment for additional spectrum.
Internet users in Kashmir will be able to access social networking websites without any problem soon, a senior officer of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited said on Thursday.
Internet users in Kashmir will be able to access social networking websites without any problem soon, a senior officer of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited said on Thursday.
In the past, BSNL had invested in IT, but it could never get the desired effect. In fact, a report pegged the company's expected 2010-11 losses to be over Rs 6,000 crore (Rs 60 billion).