India's third-largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) has secured a 10-year breather on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) payments from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). This is expected to ease pressure on its balance sheet and enable the company to raise bank debt for capital expenditure.
India's second-largest telecom service provider Bharti Airtel will call in March 2026 the final tranche of about Rs 15,741 crore from its 2021 rights issue of Rs 21,000 crore, proceeds from which will be used towards retiring majority of non-government-related debt.
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Bharti Airtel and Tata Group have terminated discussions for a merger of their direct-to-home (DTH) business, according to a Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) filing on Saturday.
Airtel has informed the government and regulator Trai that it has approached Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea with a proposal for a joint initiative to unite the industry against rising telecom fraud and scams.
Bharti Global is planning to put up more satellites and has set a stiff deadline to launch commercial Internet services by October in the UK, Alaska, northern Russia and northern Europe.
Lack of time was cited as the main reason for Bharti Chairman Sunil Mittal's exit from the Unilever board.
Spectrum allocation for satellite services came up as a dominant theme at the launch of 36 communication satellites by OneWeb, a Bharti group venture, here on Sunday. Following the launch, Bharti Enterprises chairman Sunil Mittal, in a conversation with a group of reporters, reiterated that spectrum auction did not make sense in the case of satellite services. "This (satellite services) is not competing with mobile services where you can justify the auction.
Incidentally, the shareholders' approval for Shravin Mittal's appointment with an annual salary of up to Euro 250,000 (nearly Rs 1.50 crore), came on the same day (September one) when Wipro promoted chairman Azim Premji's son Rishad as chief strategy officer. Shravin would be a staff member in Bharti Airtel International (Netherlands) BV, or BAIN.
He likes to try and try again, as the renewed merger talks with MTN have demonstrated.
On receiving the award at a glittering function, Mittal said: "This is a tremendous honour and I would like to thank the GSM Association for considering me worthy of this award."
Bharti Airtel is the country's largest telecom operator.
According to South Africa government officials, they are working closely with India through their respective finance ministries on the proposed deal between Bharti Airtel and MTN, including seeking exemption on a range of exchange controls regulations.
Sunil Mittal is seeking subsidies from the Indian government to revive the dying fixed-line phones in the country. The chairman of Bharti Airtel, the leading private sector GSM service provider, has sought the removal of licence fee and service tax that are burdening the sector.
Shares of Reliance Industries as well as Bharti Airtel began the trade on a positive note on Wednesday after the two firms announced their partnerships with Elon Musk's SpaceX for providing high-speed internet services in India. Bharti Airtel stock opened with a gain of 5.49 pc to hit a high of Rs 1,388.25 apiece on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Soon, it pared all gains and traded 0.77 per cent lower to Rs 1,650.10 per piece.
India's Sunil Mittal has been adjudged Asia's Businessman of the Year by prestigious US magazine Fortune for steering his telecom business in the world's fastest growing wireless market.
Sunil Mittal is confident that Airtel will retain its numero uno position, inspite of Vodafone's competition.
The company had been posting decline in net income for the last 14 consecutive quarters.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal on Wednesday said the telecom sector reforms approved by the Cabinet will ensure that the industry is able to invest fearlessly, and the company will respond to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to invest and accelerate the country's growth. Among a series of breathers for the stressed telecom sector, the Cabinet has approved the inclusion of revenues earned only from telecom services in the adjusted gross revenue (AGR), and the removal of penalty on dues to be paid to the government prospectively. Mittal congratulated and thanked the government for undertaking these seminal reforms to lift an industry that is at the core of his Digital India vision.
The police had filed charges in December against Bharti Airtel and Vodafone's India unit.
Telecom powerhouse Bharti Airtel's boss Sunil Mittal donated $1 million (Rs 4 crore) on Wednesday for education of underprivileged children in villages.
Telecom giant Bharti Airtel on Monday proposed an annual pay package of up to Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million) for its chief Sunil Mittal, besides other benefits, while seeking its shareholders' nod for his remuneration.
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal has expressed hope that the government and regulators will step in to ensure the sector remains a viable place for continued investments and asserted that the industry requires "long overdue" support to maintain its current 3+1 structure. In the latest annual report of Airtel, Mittal said as the sector's role in the economy becomes more pervasive, its challenges loom larger. Issues such as unsustainable pricing and low returns in a highly capital-intensive environment, coupled with legacy legal issues, "have extracted their toll", Mittal observed.
'YamaTough', the activist behind the 'Lords of Dharmaraja' hackers group, told Infosec Island, an information security Web site, 'Our goal is Bharti Mittal go off political arena and stop manipulating our government.'
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal on Thursday said he had reached out to Vodafone's Nick Read after bold telecom reforms were announced by the government and will also speak to RIL's Mukesh Ambani, as the telecom czar vowed to take the lead in bringing the industry together to unleash India's telecom dream. Mittal exhorted the industry to collaborate in areas such as infrastructure sharing to reduce costs but vehemently ruled out possibility of any cartelisation among players. Amid reports of its potential tie-ups with handset makers to counter Jio's upcoming ultra low-cost smartphone, Mittal said Airtel is in a state of "readiness" on an affordable smartphone "should a need arise".
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, on October 15, gave its recommendation on spectrum auction for premium 900 Mhz band and 1800 Mhz band that are presently being used for 2G GSM mobile services by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications.
The government must also look at rationalising the levies on the sector and close long standing legal disputes that are a big drag on performance of operators, he said.
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.
GSM operators lobby COAI has already challenged the norms announced by Department of Telecom on October 19, which include allowing dual technology for mobile services and enhanced subscriber-linked criteria for spectrum allocation. In view of protests by GSM operators, the Centre had asked Telecom Engineering Centre, the technical wing of DoT, to study the norms as suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Supporting West Bengal Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee's stand, Mittal said, "Let us see for the next 7-10 years what Indian companies deliver and then we can take a call."
Sunil Mittal, chairman & group managing director of the Bharti group, is Business Standard's CEO of the Year for 2005-06.
Shravin Mittal's venture capital firm, Unbound Advisors, has made investments worth over $500 million so far
Bharti Airtel on Monday reported a 168 per cent year-on-year rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 3,593 crore for the September quarter, and the company unveiled top-level changes, including Gopal Vittal moving into the role of executive vice chairman on January 1, 2026. India's second-largest telco - that competes with Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea in the Indian telecom market - clocked quarterly revenues of Rs 41,473 crore, 12 per cent higher than the year-ago period, aided by strong momentum in India and growth in Africa.
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal on Thursday said tariffs need to go up amid "tremendous stress" in the telecom sector, and Airtel will not hesitate to raise prices, but it will not do so unilaterally. The comments by the telecom czar came at a time when Airtel's rival Vodafone Idea has approached the government for a one-year moratorium on payment of spectrum instalment of over Rs 8,200 crore - due in April 2022. Cash-strapped VIL has told the telecom department that while it is working on raising new funding for the last six months, "investors are not willing to invest in the company because they believe that unless there is a significant improvement in consumer tariffs, the health of the industry will not recover and they will incur a loss on their investment".
Ambani and Adani account for a fifth of the net worth of all billionaire promoters in the country and half the combined net worth of the top 10.
The approved package for Mittal includes a total fixed pay (inclusive of salary, allowances and retirement benefits) of up to Rs 20 crore (Rs 200 million) per annum, variable pay (performance-linked incentives) of up to 200 per cent of the annual fixed pay in a financial year, and also perquisites worth up to 50 per cent of the fixed pay, taking the total package to an amount not exceeding Rs 70 crore (Rs 700 million).
Airtel has pitched for a hike in mobile and data tariffs.
The telecom to look at opportunities to acquire another firm in India.
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The South West District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum said that Tara Chand, a Delhi-based businessman, was entitled to three domestic trips instead of one as contended by Airtel since he had bought the connections in the names of three directors of his firm.
While Airtel's financial performance started improving from third quarter of 2013-14, the the drop in the total remuneration of Mittal has been mainly because of Rs 75 lakh (Rs 7.5 million) reduction in performance-linked incentive, as per the latest Annual Report of the company.
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