The incumbent operators faced the onslaught of free offers and cheaper rates from Jio.
Bharti to spend Rs 1,600 cr for spectrum payout over 10 yrs; Telenor to service its own debt.
Given the escalating cost of doing business, the revenue opportunity is decreasing and consolidation is an inevitable part of the industry.
The Grammy-award winning music star will now perform in Mumbai and Delhi on the same day.
The IPL broadcast rights -- internet, TV and mobile -- are expected to fetch the BCCI a massive sum of around Rs. 20,000 crore-plus.
After initial success, data use is stagnating and getting consumers to spend additional money for high-speed internet is proving to be difficult for telcos.
Vodafone India said on Friday it would launch fourth-generation (4G) mobile phone services in the country by the end of the year.
4G services typically make it much faster than 3G services to surf the web on mobile phones, tablets and laptops.
India's telecom sector has been through dizzying peaks, troughs, policy U-turns, court battles, brutal competition, and daily controversies. India could go back to a private sector duopoly with just Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel surviving the mayhem. The third player, Vodafone Idea, could be history.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S3 is more than just an entertainment device. It can double up as your work device on the go, says Abhik Sen.
Complimenting West Bengal government, Mukesh Ambani said, "We have got all the approvals in a time-bound manner."
Airtel reported a 19 per cent rise in its ARPU in the March quarter, as it removed the non-paying users from its network.
Market cap touches Rs 5 lakh crore; earnings growth to spurt in FY19
Feedback from telecom members indicated a 10 per cent increase in traffic, but no fears of choked networks. Telcos currently use 65-70 per cent of the network capacity. In other words, they have enough additional capacity to handle the new pressure without clogging the system.
India Inc raised $2.78 billion from overseas markets in October this year, up 44 per cent from a year ago, according to the Reserve Bank data released on Friday.
The company has made payment in compliance with Telecom Department's instructions for self assessment, Mittal said, adding that the Supreme Court had not mentioned specific amounts.
About Rs 52,500 crore (Rs 525 billion) has been offered as of the fourth day of the ongoing wireless spectrum auction on Thursday, with metros like Delhi seeing renewed demand for airwaves.
Rediff readers tell us what has changed in the last 10 years for them.
Ambani said Jio will offer the world's lowest data tariff
In insolvency proceedings, Ericsson will be treated as only an operational creditor and may end up losing the Rs 550 crore
Foreign Direct Investment into India rose by 13 per cent in 2020, boosted by interest in the digital sector, and while fund flows "declined most strongly" in major economies such as the UK, the US and Russia due to the Covid-19 pandemic, India and China "bucked the trend", the UN has said.
Though the mandate is seen largely an outcome of Banerjee's welfare schemes, she has promised to industrialise at a faster pace, or so read the manifesto.
To make the scheme attractive, the government has announced a rate structure wherein the operators may take the optical fibre on lease and provide broadband connectivity to customers.
The race to get a New Umbrella Entity (NUE) licence for digital payments may get crowded. As many as six consortiums are said to be in the fray to apply for an NUE licence, which would create a for-profit National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)-like body for retail payments. A consortium led by Financial Software and Systems (FSS), a leading provider of payment products and payment processor, is in talks and may file an application to the RBI for an NUE license, said sources aware of the development. The other constituents of this group include Indian Bank, Central Bank of India, India Post Payments Bank, National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (Nabard), and a few small finance banks.
Tata Group had hinted at combining its enterprise business with Tata Communications and its fixed-line and broadband businesses with Tata Sky.
No longer Bengal's finance minister, Amit Mitra, Mamata's principal chief advisor, will still advise and aid the 'chief minister and finance department on all matters relating to management of state finance', represent the 'state government in national and international events/meetings/committees' and examine 'important proposals/files and policy issues relating to financial matters referred to him for advice/views'.
Evolving a common work ethic and culture will be critical so that the merged entity does not lose focus on the common enemy outside -- and instead becomes more obsessed with internal turf wars.
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.
Given the security dilemma prevailing between India and China, India should curb the operation of Chinese telecom companies in India, asserts Dr Rup Narayan Das.
India's first auction of spectrum in five years attracted Rs 77,146 crore of bids on the opening day on Monday with Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea participating in the bidding process - a response that the government said was better than expected. There were, however, no takers for spectrum in 700 MHz and 2500 MHz bands on the first day, and the auctions will continue and conclude on Tuesday. About 2,308.80 MHz of spectrum, that carry telecom signals, in seven bands worth nearly Rs 4 lakh crore at the reserve or start price, was offered for bidding in the auction that began on Monday. Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Rs 77,146 crore worth of spectrum was bid on the first day but there were no takers for the airwaves in the premium 700 MHz as also 2500 MHz bands.
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.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have communicated to the telecom department that they will not pay AGR dues of Rs 88,624 crore, the deadline for which ended on Thursday, and will wait for the outcome of modification petition listed for hearing before the Supreme Court next week, according to official sources. Reliance Jio on Thursday paid Rs 195 crore to the telecom department to clear all adjusted gross revenue dues accounted till January 31, 2020, according to an official source.
Reliance will launch Jio, pan-India 4G service, for its employees on December 27, marking Dhirubhai Ambani's birth anniversary.
Fierce competition and rising capex will put pressure on most operators in 2017.
RIL's standalone net profit rose one per cent quarter-on-quarter
Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Tuesday said India is a very special and important country with a remarkable entrepreneurship culture, as he sought to push deeper the just-launched payments services that allow users to make payments over WhatsApp. Last month, Facebook-owned WhatsApp received approval from the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) for rolling out its payments services in India. In 2018, WhatsApp started testing its UPI-based payments services in India -- a global first -- with about a million users.
Jio is in a neck and neck battle with Airtel, which added a similar number of subscribers as Jio in the 15 months from February 2017 to April 2018
From promoters losing their firms to consumers realising there are no free lunches, 2019 was a year of getting real,says Shailesh Dobhal.
Used smartphones are gaining popularity in the hinterland, the main market for JioPhone. Share of JioPhone in the feature phone market had shrunk from 47% in Q2 of 2018 to 28% a year after.
The company added 95 lakh new 4G subscribers taking its total 4G subscriber base to 7.53 crore inching closer to its peer Bharti Airtel which reported 4G customer base of 7.7 crore.
