The division bench of Justices F I Rebello and D G Karnik on Monday reserved orders as to whether the Birla group's petition is admissible or not. The order will be passed on Tuesday. In the present case, the issue is whether the Birla group is liable to pay capital gains tax on the share-purchase transaction worth $150 million with AT&T Mauritius (subsidiary of AT&T).
Idea cellular trebled its share in the Mumbai market, albeit on a low base. RCom, for its part added five million (including GSM) subscribers during the month, numbers that have both surprised and confounded the market.
The Department of Telecommunications' Wireless Planning and Coordination arm has moved a note to issue start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz to four leading service providers offering GSM technology, whose applications have been pending from December 2006.
Idea Cellular, the GSM service provider of the Aditya Birla group, has roped in global telecom major Ericsson as equipment supplier for its GSM network in the Mumbai circle.
Members of COAI, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Idea Cellular and others met in New Delhi and decided to go ahead with filing of the affidavit in TDSAT against the Telecom Engineering Centre's report. COAI has also questioned the government's move to allocate spectrum to two telecom PSUs -- BSNL and MTNL -- saying they have been given frequency out of turn as many other players have been waiting to get spectrum for months and even years now.
BSNL had sought higher payment for minimum three years for the facilities provided to cell phone service providers -- BPL Mobile Cellular and Idea Cellular Ltd -- and email provider CG Faxemail (P) Ltd even if they had surrendered the right before the lapse of three years. A bench headed by Justice S B Sinha while upholding the telecom tribunal judgement that came down heavily on BSNL for revising rates unilaterally said: "We do not find that these appeals raise any substanti
A Delhi consumer forum has asked telecom operator Idea Cellular Ltd to pay Rs 10,000 to a person as compensation for giving a bill inflated by Rs 3.50.
The government on Tuesday started allocating GSM spectrum to new telecom players, commencing with the Tamil Nadu circle including Chennai, in a move that would infuse more competition in the mobile telephony space.Five new players -- Videocon-promoted Datacom, Idea Cellular, realty major Unitech, Swan Telecom and Loop Telecom -- have been given start-up 4.4 MHz GSM spectrum in Tamil Nadu circle.
Idea announced the lowest tariff for mobile users in the city offering all local calls for 40 paise per minute on its network for a period of one year, and STD and SMS at 50 paise per minute, on any mobile and landline network.
Admitting a report of MRTPC's investigative unit DGIR, a Bench of the quasi-judicial body, headed by Justice O P Dwivedi, issued 'notice of enquiry' and started judicial inquiry against these operators for cartelising and increasing prices of telecom services simultaneously. Admitting a report of MRTPC's investigative unit DGIR, a Bench of the quasi-judicial body, headed by Justice O P Dwivedi, issued 'notice of enquiry' and started judicial inquiry against these operators.
Demand on capital gains on Idea share sale by Mauritius subsidiary; Fema and telecom regulation violations also alleged
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.
Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 11,374.7 cr while upfront amount due from it was Rs 7,832.20 cr
With at least seven more mobile service providers planning to launch operations in the Mumbai circle, following in the footsteps of GSM player Idea Cellular, the market is slated to become the country's most competitive and fierce telecom zone.
RComm will get GSM spectrum along with other players like Vodafone, Airtel and Idea. This move will bring RComm actively in the GSM field.
Idea Cellular's latest advertisement takes the health route to push sales.
Spectrum refers to the radio frequencies that enable wireless communication. It has been the source of a bitter dispute between mobile operators of the rival GSM and CDMA technologies. In its petition, Tata Teleservices has also demanded immediate allocation of spectrum that is under the contractual obligation in areas in which it has fulfilled its subscriber base criterion.
The move by three major telecom service providers - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular - to set up a consortium for passive infrastructure is gaining ground, but independent telecom infrastructure providers are yet to be convinced.
'Kindly advise about the following stocks. Can I hold or exit?'
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.
Aditya Birla group company Idea Cellular and US-based wireless operator Verizon are all set to get the Letters of Intent for long distance services following clearance of their applications by the Department of Telecom (DoT). Official sources said the applications have been put forward for the Telecom Minister's approval. Idea is awaiting LoI for International Long Distance services while Verizon's application is for both National and International Long Distance services
The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission has issued notices to mobile operators Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Hutchison on a complaint over downloading of ring tones.
Going by application dates, companies like Spice, Birla-promoted Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications (through Swan and Cheetah) and Hindustan Futuristic are in the lead for licences in different circles. The only new player in the list is the little-known ByCell.Several incumbents like Idea Cellular, Maxis-Aircell, owned by a Malaysian promoter, and Vodafone-Essar lead the list of applicants for initial spectrum allocation since they already hold licences.
Analysts expect that Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications (RCom) and Idea Cellular will post over 50 per cent annual growth in revenues (year-on-year) and more than 10 per cent sequential growth (over the previous quarter). Bharti continues to lead in the subscriber addition race (2.1 million in August).
GSM service provider Idea Cellular will invest an additional $400 million (Rs 1,600 crore) for rolling out telecom services in four new circles - Mumbai, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Orissa - for which it has received spectrum from the Department of Telecommunications.
Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Reliance Jiosubmitted applications.
Making the things worse, those hitting their record low share prices included big names like Reliance Power, Cipla, Ranbaxy, Ambuja Cement, Hindalco, Indian Hotels, Jaiprakash Associates, Jet Airways, Suzlon Energy and Idea Cellular. Realty majors DLF Ltd, Unitech, Parsvnath, Sobha Developers, Omaxe and Puravankara also plunged to their all-time lows.
New telecom operators who have been given licences to operate pan-India GSM mobile services are all set to fight a bitter battle with the established GSM players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
Communications Minister A Raja on Monday told Parliament that there was no "contractual agreement" between government and telecom operators to allot spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz, a move that could hurt GSM players like Bharti, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. Raja also ruled out auctioning of spectrum saying this was not feasible based on previous experiences, especially in 1993 when operators were not able to fulfill their roll out obligations.
Analysts believe making mobile data more affordable will fuel mass market adoption of data services
The companies are expected to announce the deal soon.
The onus of the tax dues of Rs 22,100 crore on Vodafone India's British parent could also fall on the merged entity.
Bhupendra Kumar Modi of Spice Corp on Thursday sent an expression of interest to the new Satyam Computer Services board to acquire the fraud-hit company.
The deal is expected to be struck at $150 million (about Rs 600 crore). If the deal goes through, it will mark the entry of Indian companies in Hollywood studios.
A choppy beginning followed by flashes of good work. Strong pedigree, yet lagging behind peers. That could be actor Abhishek Bachchan or the mobile phone service he endorses, Idea Cellular. The analogy goes further. Just like Amitabh decided to step in and shore up his son's career, Idea's parent, AV Birla Group, has taken the cellular services provider by the scruff in a bid to make it one of the top three in the business.
Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL increase subscriber share while Idea manages to retain
The total revenues and net profit of the top six Indian telecom players, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, BSNL, Hutchison Essar, MTNL and Idea Cellular, more than doubled during the last two years.
In his letter dated October 19, Anil Ambani points out that while the top three GSM players -- Bharti, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular -- have acquired an additional 52 million subscribers in the past few years without allocation of any additional spectrum, something they have constantly told the government that they do not have sufficiently.
Telecom to Telekom Malaysia in an attempt to complete the merger, sources involved in the negotiations said, declining to be identified. The group has hired Enam Financial as adviser to the transaction. Investment banking sources said the lawyers from both the parties are now busy structuring the deal so that the acquisition meets all the regulatory norms of the country and the Birlas retain control over Idea Cellular.
US technology major IBM has bagged a 10-year contract worth $ 600-800 million from Idea Cellular to integrate and transform its business processes and IT infrastructure.
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