With intense competition in telecom sector, the two companies are rushing to diversify into other revenue streams, prominent among which are cloud services.
This merger, Bhupesh Bhandari believes, will be watched keenly by management gurus the world over.
Analysts at rating agency ICRA say the debt level of the telecom companies is very high and the ecosystem for the premium band is not in place.
Surprisingly, RIL scrip also fell by 2.73 per cent to 1,029.15, becoming the second biggest loser in the index
For last two months, much of the discussion, a large part of due diligence, agreement negotiations, etc, have happened remotely.
The Microsoft chief's comments come in the wake of Bill Gates' call for levying taxes on robots that take away jobs from people.
Jio's revenue increase was phenomenal in many circles: In Haryana, the RMS gain was 13 percentage points; in Bihar, 20 percentage points; in Odisha, 15 percentage points; and in Assam, 11 percentage points. However, incumbent telcos said this increase was only in three quarters, and it happened because of an order by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which tweaked the definition of significant market player (SMP) for predatory pricing.
'We are having an outsize impact not only on the lives of the customers and livelihood, but also the economy of India.'
Jio's adjusted gross revenue share went up by 7 percentage points in Q2FY18-19 over the previous quarter in the circles of the C category.
The launch of services by Jio in September 2016 had disrupted the whole telecom sector, with operators matching low rates to maintain competitive edge
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telcom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) have opposed the proposal to compensate consumers.
The Aam Aadmi Party has demanded the dismissal of Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad alleging a conflict of interest that has prevented him from issuing a notice to Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio on the 4G issue, a charge vehemently denied by Prasad who said he never gave advice or appeared for the company.
Bankers said as part of its debt reduction plan, Canada's Brookfield-sponsored India Infrastructure Trust acquired a pipeline for Rs 13,000 crore from East West Pipeline Ltd, an arm of Reliance Industries Holding Private Ltd, and all the liabilities are now off the subsidiary's books.
India now has 402 million internet users - second only to China.
Amazon Prime leads the race to buy digital rights for Bollywood blockbusters with Hotstar and Netflix trailing far behind.
Kumar Mangalam Birla will be the non-executive chairman and Balesh Sharma the new CEO of the merged entity, which will remain listed.
A Vodafone Group insider with more than 25 years in the telco across geographies, he's like the eyes and ears of the multinational in India.
Star's maths is simple: It expects to make something close to Rs 40 billion from the two properties in the first year (2018) itself, which is pretty close to its break even point
Telecom companies that bought spectrum in the 2G auction of November last year would lose around Rs 4,000 crore
Bharti has been expanding its spectrum portfolio and now owns 4G data across all 22 circles in India
The rating affirmation reflected RIL's strong business profile - a large-scale refinery with a capacity of around 1.2 million barrels a day and dominant market position in petrochemicals.
'Without reviving employment, consumer confidence will not go up.'
What worked for Airtel was that its data traffic growth was 13 per cent sequentially and its average data usage was even higher than Jio's at 11.9 gigabyte per month per user.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Monday said his company is open to joining hands with Bharti Airtel for improving telecom network for 4G services in Punjab.
The process of switching off the 3G network has already started with Kolkata in the recent-concluded June quarter. By September, the shutdown will be affected in 6-7 more circles and between December and March the entire 3G network would be shut down.
"We are delighted to welcome Google as a strategic investor in Jio Platforms. We have signed a binding partnership and an investment agreement under which Google will invest Rs 33,737 crores for a 7.7 per cent stake in Jio Platforms," Mukesh Ambani said at the company's annual general meeting.
A look at the star arrivals.
Delay due to rise in operating cost of telcos, late adoption of 4G network
With the insistence on data centres to be onshore, entities in real estate believe there is going to be a rise in demand for specialised Grade-A commercial spaces to set these up.
Chinese telcos hold 60-100 MHz of spectrum, while Indian companies hold 13-15 MHz of spectrum.
The latest deal would give Facebook deeper access to India, the second largest internet market after China.
A new board has been constituted for the merged entity 'Vodafone Idea Ltd' with 12 directors (including six independent directors) and Kumar Mangalam Birla as its Chairman. The board has appointed Balesh Sharma as the CEO, the companies said in a joint statement. The combination will have an all-India revenue market share of 32.2 per cent and take the numero uno slot in nine telecom circles, it said adding that both Vodafone and Idea brands will continue.
The apex court said Ambani and the others will have to purge contempt by paying Rs 453 crore to Ericsson in four weeks. A bench comprising Justices R F Nariman and Vineet Saran said if the 'contemnors' failed to make the payments within the specified period, they will undergo a jail term of three months.
At present 100% FDI is allowed, of which up to 49% investment in a company can be done through the automatic route
Stating that the forthcoming elections will delay the reform process and hurt growth, international rating agency Moody's on Monday said it expects growth to pick up to only 5.5 per cent in FY15.
The effective cost of the fully made-in-India phone will be zero, as against the minimum Rs 3-4.5k cost for a smartphone, Ambani said.
While existing players are expected to first drop prices, acquisition of smaller firms by larger ones is likely in future
Manoj Sinha, earlier minister of state for railways, will be tasked to conduct the auction and deal with issues like net neutrality.
Airtel and Vodafone Idea are also trying to expand the penetration of 4G users in their subscriber base as they take this network to the hinterland
Refining and petrochemicals contribute around 90 per cent to RIL's overall revenue and profit.
