Three individuals have been arrested in Shivamogga, Karnataka, in connection with a nationwide cyber fraud operation involving over Rs 82 crore and 352 registered complaints.
App-based communication services providers and Indian telcos are at loggerheads over the SIM-binding directions issued by the department of telecom, which are to be complied with by the end of February 2026.
The missive has, however, polarised stakeholders, with mobile operators under COAI coming out in its support, while digital platforms under the aegis of Broadband India Forum expressing "serious concerns" around overreach and calling for a pause in implementation of timelines.
Bharti Airtel is expected to see its highest revenue growth, and subscriber addition during the third quarter (October-December) of FY25 among telcos, said analysts. The telco's top line in Q3 may see the fastest sequential growth at 5 per cent compared to 3 per cent for Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi). Airtel's annual mobile revenue growth would rise to 16 per cent, IIFL Capital said in an analyst note.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel expects to launch 5G services within a month and cover key metros by December, a top official of the company said on Wednesday. The telco plans to cover all urban areas of the country by the end of 2023, according to the company's CEO. Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal in a communication to the customers said Airtel 5G will deliver dramatically higher speeds of 20-30 times compared to a 4G network.
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.
Losing subscribers for the fourth straight month, Reliance Jio witnessed 3.76 million users leave the telecom operator in October, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed on Monday. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel reversed three months of decline, and added 1.92 million users, indicating it has overcome the impact of the broad-based tariff hikes imposed by private sector telcos in July.
After continuously bleeding subscribers for nearly two years, state-owned telecom services provider BSNL added 2.9 million users in July when its private-sector rivals raised tariffs by nearly 20 per cent. With BSNL keeping tariffs unchanged, many subscribers using entry-level plans shifted from Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi), said analysts.
Reliance Jio's major subscriber losses continued for the third straight month with 7.96 million users leaving the telecom operator in September, even as the state-owned BSNL stood out as the lone gainer, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed on Thursday. Market leader Jio's subscriber loss has continued since July when the three private telecom operators - Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) - brought in a broad-based hike in tariffs.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced new postpaid plans and discontinued some previous ones. "In the post-pandemic world, an abundance of high-speed data is increasingly becoming a key need for customers as work from home and online education is the new normal. "In this context, Airtel has further simplified its postpaid plans to offer industry-leading data benefits backed by a 5G-ready network and superior digital-first customer care. "The plans also come with a range of exclusive benefits such as bundled content and business productivity tools," Airtel said in a press release.
Consumers are unlikely to disconnect their mobile connections and will most likely absorb the up to 22 per cent tariff hike imposed last week by Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi), according to analysts. The last major tariff hike in 2021 was followed by a 4-5 per cent SIM consolidation, with people leaving mobile operators with more expensive plans for their peers offering comparatively affordable options.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday said its 5G services have gone live in eight cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi. The customer availing 5G services will have to pay as per their existing 4G plan, it said. "Airtel has been at the forefront of India's telecom revolution for the last 27 years.
Comviva (formerly Bharti Telesoft) is in talks with several telecom service providers, including group company Bharti Airtel, to launch a SIM (or Subscriber Identity Module) card that allows up to 10 users to share the same mobile phone with their own specific numbers.
These customers will be unable to meet the lowest recharge requirements for Jio, meaning they will either exit the market or migrate to BSNL/MTNL.
Reacting to the statement Jio said that the admission by Ookla reinforces Jio's submission that there is a clear contamination in primary data collected by Ookla in India, where nearly 90 per cent of smartphones are dual SIM devices
The submission was made before additional sessions judge Hardeep Kaur, who extended the judicial custody of all the six accused till March 1.
Many users did not know that their entitlement was not coming to their regular bank account but going to an account which they had not applied for.
Checl out Airtel's new pre-paid plan for Chennai.
Airtel starts 4G trial in Mumbai; partners Flipkart, Samsung.
Numbers could be classified further into (140) marketing and (160 or 161) for service calls to easily identify the purpose of the call in the future.
If Vodafone Idea shuts, a bulk of the high-paying ARPU customers will move to Airtel as Reliance Jio does not have a comprehensive postpaid offering like it, and have aggressively preferred to play in the prepaid market. The bulk of Vodafone Idea customers use 2G phones and only a few of them use data. It will be easier for Airtel to woo these customers as they can shift seamlessly to its 2G network without changing handsets or even SIM cards,
Revenues of Airtel and Idea have been hit by falling realisation and analysts said margins would be affected by higher costs.
Under another plan, it will offer unlimited voice calling along with 100 SMS per day, 5GB 3G/4G data and free subscription to Wynk Music and Wynk Movies for Rs 1,599
Firms come out with detailed communiqu for consumers that counter Jio's claims of cheap data
In a dig at Jio's Rs 1,500 4G-enabled feature phone, the Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company said its smartphone would be made available for the price of a feature phone
This move gives Airtel and Chinese major immense benefits.
According to telcos and analysts, this is due to SIM consolidation happening after the minimum recharge plans were implemented by incumbents.
With telecom disruptor Reliance Jio not raising tariffs, incumbents Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are focusing on the minimum monthly recharge and higher first recharge offers to ensure they retain only loyal and revenue-incremental subscribers, reports Romita Majumdar.
The highest number of requests are in Karnataka (39.18 million) and Tamil Nadu (35.56 million).
A user will need to buy a 4G-enabled handset and then upgrade his or her existing 2G/3G SIM card to a USIM (Universal SIM)/4G SIM.
Telecom major Jio will start the beta trial of 5G services in four cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Varanasi from October 5 with a select set of customers, the company said on Tuesday. The company will send invites to customers under 'Jio True 5G Welcome Offer' to try its 5G services and the subscribers will get Unlimited 5G data with up to 1 gigabit per second speed. "Post the successful demonstration of its True-5G services at the India Mobile Congress 2022, Jio is announcing the Beta trial of its True-5G services on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra, for Jio users in four cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Varanasi," Jio said in the statement.
Canvas Blaze will have one sim slot that will work on 3G equivalent CDMA network of MTS and the other will support GSM sim which can work on network of telecom players like Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular etc.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced the commercial launch of 4G services in 296 towns across India after testing the market in select cities.
Users are increasingly taking to dual-SIM handsets, which enable two connections on a single device.
Reliance Jio test launched its services last December, but dates for commercial launch has not been announced.
Airtel and Vodafone Idea are also trying to expand the penetration of 4G users in their subscriber base as they take this network to the hinterland
The phone comes with a free 4G SIM and double data offer from Airtel.
Big, Bold and Smart. That's what the MG Hector radiates when you first see it.
The Indian market is more in sync with mobile markets of advanced countries like the UK, Japan, and South Korea, where there are fewer players - three to four.
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