Bulk of these customers use 2G phones and are still focused on voice services and might prove useful for both Bharti Airtel and the Idea-Vodafone combine.
Bharti Airtel made part payment of Rs 4,725 crore.
In a major reform push, government on Thursday approved 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in the telecom sector, meeting a key demand of the fund-starved industry.
Telecom regulator TRAI has imposed cumulative penalty of Rs 50 lakh on nine mobile operators for failing to meet quality of service benchmarks in the second quarter ended June 2013, official sources said.
The move will help telcos, including Reliance Jio, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular
Spectrum auction on Thursday entered the 10th day of bidding and started off from Rs 61,091.83 crore (Rs 610.91 billion) in terms of value.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel led the growth in segment with net addition of 1.31 million subscribers.
The country's wireless subscriber base fell to 87.05 crore at the end of September, registering the first drop in five months, after Reliance Communications deactivated services of over 1 crore "unprofitable" users.
Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, however, continued to add wireless subscribers
Even as telecom services are being restored in Kashmir Valley, mobile operators are offering free calling facility in the region.
'Spectrum payment to push up telcos' debt to Rs 3.5 lakh cr'
GSM based mobile service providers jointly added over 44 lakh new customers, taking their cumulative customer base to 67.88 crore in September, according to data released by industry body COAI on Wednesday.
The CAG report, tabled in Parliament, states the interest on the short payment stood at Rs 1,052.13 crore for the period up to March 2016.
According to a Deutsche Bank report, the Idea-Vodafone combine will have to pay a 30 per cent lower annual installment on spectrum due to the longer duration of the payment tenure.
Telecom companies have put in bids worth Rs 58,332 crore (Rs 583.32 billion) in spectrum auction at the end of 49 rounds on the 7th day of bidding on Monday.
The auction started off with the 36th round this morning. At the end of 35 rounds on Friday, bids worth around Rs 54,600 crore had been received by the government.
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that there were 31 complaints of call drops against the company in 2015
DoT still working on final AGR dues due to varying accounting practices. Telecom operators have been submitting two separate audited details of deduction towards interconnection usage charges and roaming fee to the DoT.
Mobile phone service providers alone jointly reported gross revenue of Rs 55,164.18 crore (RS 551.64 billion).
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
The Department of Telecom may bar operators holding 3G airwaves from sharing the high-speed spectrum.
India's third largest telecom operator Idea Cellular joined the data tariff war by slashing 2G mobile internet rates by 90 per cent and 3G tariffs by 30 per cent for six months from November 15.
DoT had raised the demand on December 22 and asked RCom to pay within a month.
Analysts expect structural risks such as risk to voice revenues, steep correction in data realisations, capex spend and rise in churn and subsequent increase in costs to continue in the medium term
Government's resolution on the contentious issue of spectrum usage fee seems to have found favour with telecom operators with none of them withdrawing their application from airways auction on the last day on Monday.
The company has reportedly been in the process of shutting its CDMA business and shifting its subscribers to 2G, 3G and 4G networks.
In effect, companies which put their money in telecom in India would have done much better to keep the cash in bank and earn interest.
Sources say companies will have to keep the market share of merged entities below 50% in all circles
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has given its recommendations on the much-awaited issue of spectrum sharing.
Funds will be raised via non-cumulative preference shares issued to Tata Sons on rights basis
The interconnection charge has been reduced.
Telecom subscriber base crossed the 95-crore mark in August, after a gap of more than two years, on the back of higher mobile users whose number touched 92.43 crore.
A liberalised spectrum allows operators to use any technology to deliver services like 3G and 4G.
The telecom spectrum auction entered the 33rd round of bidding today after starting off from the Rs 52,689 crore (Rs 526. 89 billion) mark this morning.
Idea may have to shell out Rs 4,500 crore in cash
The third round of spectrum auction continued to witness aggressive bidding even after completion of seventeen rounds on Wednesday with demands for both bands of airwaves on offer continuing to pour in.
Mukesh's television unit has been aggressively wrapping up deals with hundreds of small players in a street-by-street effort to conquer that final hurdle in its cable TV drive
The amount generated so far is about 86 per cent of what the 3G auction fetched in 2010.
TRAI may recommend the DoT to levy one-time non-refundable fee of Rs 50,000 per operator for each service area in which they opt for spectrum sharing.
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.
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