Inflation is down, growth is headed for recovery. RIL and subsidiary Jio are on an upswing. However, stressed loans and impending job losses are the dark clouds, says Devangshu Datta.
A year after Bharti Airtel launched 4G services, there are only 6.5 mn users in the country
The rally in most of these stocks is partly attributed to impressive financial performance.
The recognition that content - video in particular - will be the next big thing in the telecom wars requires no rocket science.
But the road map of telecom will be decided by one thing: Whether Jio sticks to its ambitious plan and whether incumbents have enough financial muscle or ability to raise money every year to ensure that Jio does not reach its target, says Surajeet Das Gupta.
RIL has signed an infrastructure sharing agreement with Reliance Communications (RCom, of the Dhirubhai Ambani group) to launch its services.
The freebies are now over, but Jio will need to notch up subscriber numbers and margins to prove its sceptics wrong.
Vodafone had contended in its plea that DoT instead of signing and executing the ULs had at the last moment informed them that their request for deletion of 'restrictive' clauses in licence pertaining to roaming cannot be accepted.
With slower than expected growth in smartphone penetration, operators and OEMs are joining hands to provide affordable mobile devices with attractive offers.
Mukesh Ambani said the Digital India initiative has the potential to transform the lives of 1.2 billion Indians using the power of digital technology.
Ambani brothers on Wednesday showered lavish praises on Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying, India has now got a decisive and visionary leader.
The old guard is still involved in broad corporate decision-making, but quite a few new business heads have started making their mark at the group
This is the first time airwaves in 700 Mhz band will be put up for auction
Investors will remain cautious ahead of F&O expiry.
Jio's disruptive strategy, including free voice services and data at throwaway rates, apart from offering all services free for six months, triggered a consolidation in the telecom sector.
Spectrum was sold at about 68 per cent premium.
The fear of another scam pushed the government into a rather long period of so-called 'policy paralysis'. To play it safe, the price of spectrum in all subsequent auctions was benchmarked to the high 3G rates, says Surajeet Das Gupta.
RBI's fifth bi-monthly monetary policy meet due tomorrow also kept the investors on their toes.
In UK, France and Germany, the president and CEO of Edelweiss Securities, anticipates votes incrementally in favour of local protection and de-globalisation.
The once-popular brand plans to try its luck in the smartphone market with reliability as its key proposition.
The big beneficiaries of this move will be the big three -- Bharti, Vodafone and Idea.
Beware, it's not just criminals who want your data!
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio Infocomm and five other telecom firms will battle it out at the spectrum auction tomorrow, from which the government expects to garner at least Rs 11,300 crore (Rs 113 billion).
iPhone sales in India were up by 56 per cent during the period.
'I feel more like a chess player, thinking for long hours how to make the next move," Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan tells Surajeet Das Gupta.
Mittal said that overall, he expected that by March 2018, the "dust will settle down" for the entire industry.
The telecom sector is in the midst of another major shift as voice gives way to data.
The big advantage that Jio is able to garner currently is its low cost of operations.
Its says reconsider lower reserve price, uniform usage charges; GSM players to bear the brunt.
Monsoon is expected to be normal in June.
Sensex may remain under pressure this week due to weak global factors.
The lack of bandwidth and content means it will be a long time before online streaming services take off in India.
Mamata Banerjee said availability of land won't be a problem in Bengal as the state government has a land bank.
India Inc has few leaders who are likely to grab headlines in 2015.
Markets end in the red, midcaps in focus
RJio is targeting the existing base of high-value customers.
Ambani said, in the telecom space, the focus will be on debt reduction, and the virtual merger did away with the need for major capex and will help towards this
Spectrum auction took off on Wednesday from Rs 58,980.29 crore (Rs 589.80 billion) mark with demand for the premium 900 Mhz band seemingly tapering off at the end of 56 rounds.
Telecom companies put in bids worth a total of about Rs 45,000 crore (Rs 450 billion) on the second day of the auction on Tuesday, with premium 900 Mhz band in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata witnessing continuing demand.
Rationalisation of reserve prices in the ongoing spectrum auction helped the government to get Rs 40,000 crore of bids on the opening day.
