State-owned BSNL will start 5G services in 2024, Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday. BSNL has shortlisted a TCS and C-DOT led consortium for rolling out 4G network, which will be upgraded to 5G in about a year of placing the order under the contract. "BSNL will start 5G services in 2024," Vaishnaw said while speaking to reporters in New Delhi.
Telecom operators will need to shut down 5G services in high-frequency bands in and around airports following restrictions imposed by the Department of Telecom at the request of the civil aviation ministry, according to sources. Based on buffer and safety zone details provided by the aviation ministry, the DoT has asked telecom operators to not install 5G base stations in the 3.3-3.6 Ghz band in the area of 2.1 kilometres from both ends of the runway and 910 meters from the centre line of the runway of Indian airports with immediate effect. "Telecom operators will need to shut down 5G service in the 3.3-3.6 Ghz band only in and around airports based on the order.
Close to half the telecom equipment revenue came from carrier equipment manufacturers, which saw a 12.12 per cent dip in earnings to Rs 58,294 crore during the year, according to the survey 'V&D 100' by Voice&Data journal.
A Bench headed by Justice Altamas Kabir sought an reply from 11 repondents Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone Essar Mobile Services, Cellular Operators Association of India, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, BPL Mobile Communications, HFCL Infotel, and Spice Communications -- as to why they should not pay ADC to BSNL.
German MNC Siemens on Tuesday announced consolidation of its telecom operations in India by buying out 100 per cent equity stake in its telecom company, Siemens Public Communication Networks Pvt Ltd, for a consideration of Rs 195 crore (Rs 1.95 billi
In his post, Vaishnaw said Apple has also claimed that Apple IDs are securely encrypted on devices, making it extremely difficult to access or identify them without the user's explicit permission.
Amidst the controversy over the allocation of spectrum and grant of telecom licences, the government on Monday said all licences are proposed to be renewed after 10 years instead of the 20-year period earlier.
Six months after an infrastructure deal with brother Anil Ambani, Mukesh Ambani has now joined hands with Sunil Mittal.
With the import bill of telecom equipment rising, the government on Wednesday said preferential treatment would be given to its indigenous production in the New Telecom Policy, which is under formulation.
It's difficult to say whether the CBI will find enough proof against telecom minister A Raja or whether it will get caught in the parcel of half-truths he's been dishing out on how he's just followed the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the actions of his predecessors.
The number of mobile phone connections in India rose by 1.96 million in March, after reducing by 1.06 million in February, latest data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed. The number of new connections have hit a 9-month high. In these past 9-months, the total number of wireless (mobile phone) subscriptions had reduced on 5 occasions, the data shows.
Under the pact, Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries' telecom arm will hire nationwide optical fibre network of Reliance Communications for the roll-out of 4G services.
Companies such as Tata Sons and Bharti Telecom, which are unlisted but have listed subsidiaries, may soon have to file periodic financial statements with the registrar of companies under the new provision of the Companies Act. The provision requires greater financial disclosures by a certain category of unlisted companies.
Call drops may end as govt allows telecom spectrum trading
The price hikes during Covid were more because of supply chain and logistics disruptions caused by the pandemic and the Ukraine war rather than firms increasing prices because of higher pricing power, a report by State Bank of India (SBI) said. "It is thus incorrect to infer that concentration power dictated pricing capacity of firms, thus resulting in unyielding core inflation," the report authored by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser, SBI, said. A recent research article by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Viral Acharya had observed that persistence of core inflation in India is due to purchasing power of top-five corporate houses.
Indian telecom seems to be getting back on its feet.
The Lok Sabha witnessed a heated debate Friday on an Ethics Committee report recommending Trinamool Congress MP Mahua Moitra's expulsion in the cash-for-query issue, with the Opposition demanding she be allowed to speak in the House, and the government contending her views were heard by the panel.
Disillusioned with the 'politics' in South African cricket administration, Brian McMillan decided to stay away from the game.
Though the multi-crore 2G scam had come to light last year, it was 2011 which was action-packed as Raja, telecom ministry officials along with many high-profile business heads were put behind the bars for their alleged involvement in the case.
The Department of Telecom on Monday said it would hold consultations with various operators on the issue of foreign direct investment but denied that the FDI issue was in any way linked to unified licencing regime.
The entire Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday was one against the hike in telecom rates but failed to elicit any assurance of a rollback from Telecom Minister Arun Shourie.
Foreign portfolio investors (FPIs) have withdrawn over Rs 12,000 crore from Indian equities this month so far, mainly due to a sustained rise in US bond yields and the uncertain environment resulting from the Israel-Hamas conflict. However, the story takes an intriguing turn on observing FPI activity in Indian debt as they have infused over Rs 5,700 crore into the debt market during the period under review, data with the depositories showed. Going ahead, the trajectory of FPIs' investments in India will be influenced not only by global inflation and interest rate dynamics but also by the developments and intensity of the Israel-Hamas conflict, Himanshu Srivastava, associate director - manager research, Morningstar Investment Adviser India, said.
The wise men who formulated the National Telecom Policy 999 broke the vertically integrated National Telecom Network into three segments, i.e., Access (Fixed and Mobile), National Long Distance and International Long Distance. This has resulted in a dramatic reduction in tariffs and improvement of Quality of Service.
The mistrust between the authorities and service providers can end if the contentious issues are addressed as a package deal.
Telecom companies with cases pending before the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal or those hoping to file new ones would be advised to hurry.
Reliance Industries (RIL) has reset its battery pack production timeline, shifting it from 2023 earlier to 2024, details shared in the oil-to-telecom conglomerate's latest annual report suggest. In the FY23 annual report released on Sunday, the company has listed the start of battery pack production in 2024. A year ago, at the company's annual general meeting (AGM), Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of RIL, had said, "We aim to start production of battery packs by 2023 and scale up to a fully integrated 5 GWh annual cell-to-pack manufacturing facility by 2024."
The department of telecom will issue guidelines on raising the foreign direct investment limit to 74 per cent from 49 per cent next week.
The Delhi circle licence will be available in the efficient 900 MHz spectrum, which is why Videocon is interested.
Expressing concern over frequent internet shutdown without any empirical study, a Parliamentary panel has pulled up the Department of Telecommunications for not maintaining the record of incidents and inaction on several of its recommendations. The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology on 'Suspension of Telecom Services and Internet and its impact' tabled in Lok Sabha on Thursday, the panel has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to lay down a clear cut principle of proportionality and procedure for lifting of shutdown in coordination with the home ministry to prevent any misuse of the suspension rules. The panel rejected the logic of the DoT and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for not maintaining the record of the shutdown, saying it cannot simply take the plea that police and public order are essentially state subjects and suspension of the internet does not actually come under the ambit of crimes.
Odisha had 9,940 villages without mobile services, while 6,117 villages in Maharashtra and 5,558 villages in Madhya Pradesh did not have mobile services, the data showed.
The new telecom policy-2011 is also expected to come out with new norms for mergers and acquisitions, enhancing rural coverage, and spectrum allocation, among other things.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B ministry) may launch its review of the government's plan to potentially reserve the crucial C-band of radio frequencies for 5G and 6G telecommunication (telecom) use, said officials. While the incumbent broadcasting operators have warned that the plan will leave "precious little spectrum" for broadcasting services, telecom service providers (TSPs) have pressed hard for getting access to the C-band. In multiple letters to the I&B ministry over the past month, the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) has said the industry would be left with precious little spectrum for broadcasting services if the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) further allocates the scant C-band for 5G.
Consumers and businesses can tweet to communications minister Manoj Sinha (@manojsinhabjp) using #DOTSeva, #BSNLSeva, #MTNLSeva, and #PostalSeva.
The Cellular Operators Association of India has suggested that the government, in allocating telecom licence, consider applicants with experience and impose a five-year lock-in period under which promoters cannot sell their equity.
The policy is also pushing for a one-country-one-licence regime, which means removal of roaming charges.
Both Airtel and Vodafone claim they did everything possible to resume services.
Shares of Reliance Industries (RIL) traded 2 per cent higher at Rs 2,310.10 on the BSE in intra-day trade in an otherwise volatile market after the company reported a 27.4 per cent year-on-year (YoY) growth in its consolidated net profit at Rs 17,394 crore for the September quarter (Q2FY24). While revenue growth of the company was flattish YoY at Rs 2.32 trillion, the profit rose on the back of operational improvement across most segments, especially higher profits in the O2C (oil-to-chemicals) and oil & gas businesses, as well as the retail business. "Strong operational and financial contribution from all business segments has helped Reliance deliver another quarter of robust growth," said Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of the company.
In 2011-12, India imported Rs 52,400-crore (Rs 524 billion) worth of telecom equipment; most estimates are that the figure in 2012-13 will match or even cross that number.
The government has issued a stern warning to telecom companies to put the required security system for Blackberry services in place within 15 days or stop the services. The directive has been issued to the respective service providers to work out with officials of Blackberry licensor Research in Motion (RIM) of Canada to provide full-proof security system in the country. Currently, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, BPL Mobile and Reliance are offering this premium service.
Given how the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai's) recommendations on 2G spectrum will hit telecom firms, it's not surprising that telecom stocks have plunged. Of course, the fun and games have only begun since it is up to Telecom Minister A Raja to decide whether to accept the recommendations, which ones to accept, and when to accept.