Telecom regulator Trai on Monday recommended about 39 per cent reduction in the reserve or floor price for the sale of spectrum for mobile services, including the latest 5G offering, as it looked to match revenue expectations with the industry's paying capacity. With large swathes of spectrum remaining unsold in the last two auctions, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommended to the government for selling airwaves in all existing bands of 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz and new slots of 600 MHz, 3300-3670 MHz and 24.25-28.5 GHz. It has suggested a lower reserve price for all bands, compared to the prices proposed in the previous recommendations in 2018.
The brand integration not only marks the completion of the largest telecom merger in the world, but will also set the company on its future journey to offer strong digital experiences to 1 billion Indians on its 4G network.
Of late, net neutrality has generated much debate.
American technology giant Apple's chief executive Tim Cook on Wednesday met ICICI Bank's top brass at the country's largest private sector lender's corporate headquarters in Mumbai.
In big bang reforms, the Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved a relief package for the telecom sector that includes a four-year moratorium on payment of statutory dues by telecom companies as well as allowing 100 per cent foreign investment through the automatic route. Briefing reporters on the decisions taken by the Cabinet, Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnav said nine structural reforms for the telecom sector were approved. The definition of AGR, which had been a major reason for the stress in the sector, has been rationalised by excluding non-telecom revenue of telecom companies.
Investor wealth zoomed over Rs 10.48 lakh crore in two days as the Budget-driven market euphoria continued to charge bulls on Tuesday.
Tata Group had hinted at combining its enterprise business with Tata Communications and its fixed-line and broadband businesses with Tata Sky.
Telcos likely to get to switch from 2,300-MHz band for 4G services.
Corporate revenues will decline for a third consecutive quarter in March on a YoY basis - one of the worst shows by these companies in many years.
"If we are not getting anything then I think it is end of story for Vodafone Idea," Kumar Mangalam Birla said at the HT Leadership Summit when asked about the future of Vodafone Idea in absence of a government relief on payment of Rs 53,038 crore dues.
'Apparently the entire biometric database's demographic data is available, which means that every Aadhaar signup is wide open to identity theft.' 'The commoditisation of the method -- selling the log-in for Rs 500 -- indicates that scammers have already harvested whatever they wanted,' points out Devangshu Datta.
Successful bidders will have to pay 25 per cent of the amount upfront for sub 1 GHz, and 50 per cent upfront for higher frequency bands.
With slower than expected growth in smartphone penetration, operators and OEMs are joining hands to provide affordable mobile devices with attractive offers.
Reliance Jio test launched its services last December, but dates for commercial launch has not been announced.
The group began to outperform the broader market only with the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 while earlier it was largely keeping pace with the Sensex. The group's market cap is up 164.4 per cent since the end of March 2020 against a 105 per cent rally in the Sensex.
According to senior officials in the department of telecommunication 20 Mhz of spectrum has been given to the four firms -- Infotel, Bharti, Aircel and Tikona Digital, which have licences to offer services.
As the TRAI imposed deadline ends on April 24, Rediff Chat will host a series of net activists and experts to explain the issues involved, what is at stake here, and why net neutrality needs to be an article of faith if the dream of Digital India is to be realised.
Chiki Sarkar's literary juggernaut.
With the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) directive for operators offering digital television services to allow consumers to select and pay subscription for channels they choose to watch, instead of offering only bundled packages, direct-to-home (DTH) service companies have begun rolling out the services.
The world's biggest social network Facebook wants to connect more people to internet in India which accounts for the third largest online user base globally after China and the US but has a very low internet penetration growth rate.
While payments banks surely lose money, their operating ratios were looking better in 2017-18 compared to the year before. This implies that as customer volumes start picking up, the business models may perk up too, says R Jagannathan.
Investment in market leaders with a safety-first approach could yield reasonable returns across sectors.
This equity capital infusion is the country's largest-ever FDI.
In its bid to grab eyeballs in the regional space, Big Magic rebrands channel, sets up production unit in Patna
Bharti Airtel said on Wednesday its digital services added 1.50 million customers between April and October this year and 60 per cent of its subscribers are from the rural region.
An open and free internet is a key contributing factor to innovation in the digital economy.
Mittal said that overall, he expected that by March 2018, the "dust will settle down" for the entire industry.
Three stockmarket experts give their best picks for the New Year.
Gearing up for its pan-India 4G services launch in coming months, Reliance Jio Infocomm has approached the Department of Telecom for a network test conducted along with security agencies.
Telecom companies have been desperately waiting for a bailout package from the government after a Supreme Court order put their statutory liabilities at Rs 1.47 lakh crore.
It has suggested OTTs be subject to the same security requirements that a traditional TSP has to adhere to.
The digital video recorder, which allows viewers to record programmes in one channel while watching another and play according to convenience, is being billed as the next big thing in the evolving Indian DTH market. "This, of course, will be a premium product and we plan to announce the launch of DVR technology platform for our DTH service very soon. It will be a Diwali gift to our customers," TataSky Chief Marketing Officer Vikram Mehra told PTI.
Despite low tariffs, voice usage is not growing.
Globally, the focus has moved back to India, especially in terms of telecom assets. Vodafone Idea, with some 300 million customers, continues to be attractive with shares available at a low price.
Several people in the Valley complained that SMS services were working only on some network providers including BSNL. The govt had said the broadband services in hospitals and SMS services would be restored at midnight on Tuesday.
Bharti Airtel called the prices exorbitant while Vodafone Idea wants the auctions take place in 2020. The auctions need to happen when the infrastructure is ready for the roll out, be it in terms of fiberisation levels, or optimisation of equipment and software etc. Spending a hefty amount on a technology (airwaves) that at present offers limited returns is not going to be a priority for the incumbent telcos.
A grouping of Indian and Indian-origin professionals working with tech giants like Google, Uber, Amazon and Facebook have written an open letter against the new religion-based citizenship law and the planned national register of citizens, terming them as "fascist". The letter by 'TechAgainstFascism' on online publishing platform Medium also urged the leaders to refuse to shut off the Internet at the "government's whim" and to ensure that content moderation is not skewing pro-government.
'Unless cash has ceased to be king, the issue is the same in the aviation, telecom and ecommerce sectors: Sustainability,' notes T N Ninan.
Unlike the race to buy airwaves by telecom companies, airports by infrastructure companies and city gas networks by energy companies, the race to develop super apps by consumer-facing companies in India has not brushed up against any regulatory issues. Officials at the ministry of electronics and information technology and at other regulators are happy they do not have to meddle in who among the Tata group, Reliance Industries Ltd, Flipkart or Paytm will manage to build an app that sweeps in customers. Unlike separate apps a customer uses on her mobile to order groceries, buy food or airline tickets or just make payments, a super app can perform all these functions.
Irrespective of demonetisation and GST blues, IIM Lucknow has been able to successfully place their batch of 459 students.
