Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile operator, on Wednesday entered into an agreement with Opera Software, under which its customers across India, Africa, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh will be able to access a customised version of the latter's internet browser on their mobiles.
Leading telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, BSNL, Vodafone and the Tatas are understood to have been slapped penalty for non-verification of subscribers in the J&K and Assam circles.
It is believed that apart from Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel, there are four players that have made a bid.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel led the growth in segment with net addition of 1.31 million subscribers.
Tech and startup industry bodies have again pushed back against calls by telecom operators to bring over-the-top (OTT) services under a licensing regime similar to telcos, and open them up to taxation. Ahead of public consultations on the issue later this week, the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Nasscom and the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), among others, have written to the government arguing against such efforts.
The service, offering 175 channels, will be initially available to customers in 62 cities -- starting October 9, 2008 -- through 21,000 retail points, including retail relationship centres across the country. Later, it will be expanded to 252 cities.
The incumbent operators faced the onslaught of free offers and cheaper rates from Jio.
Mittal said he discussed a plethora of issues with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and sought the government's support for faster clearances to streamline the group's investment plans.
The Indian equity markets will soon account for over a fifth of a key emerging market (EM) benchmark tracked by funds with assets exceeding $500 billion. This development is expected to funnel as much as $3 billion into the domestic markets. Following the latest review undertaken by global index provider MSCI, India's weighting in the MSCI EM index will surpass 20 per cent for the first time, narrowing its gap with the current top-weighted China to fewer than 400 basis points.
Bharti Airtel is learnt to be considering a bid for South African telecom firm MTN, which has operations in over 20 countries. If successful, it will catapult the company into the league of top global telecom players.
Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty closed marginally lower on Friday as investors booked profit in FMCG, IT and healthcare stocks after the BSE Sensex and Nifty hit fresh lifetime highs in intra-day deals. The 30-share BSE Sensex dipped 7.65 points or 0.01 per cent to settle at 75,410.39. During the day, it rallied 218.46 points or 0.28 per cent to hit its all-time intra-day high of 75,636.50.
The Customer Complaints Council pulled up Hindustan Unilever Ltd (HUL) for advertisement of its water purifier product 'Pureit Ultima'.
Airtel rolls out fourth-generation (4G) data service across 296 cities.
The country's largest telecom player Bharti Airtel sees 3G as a major growth propeller and says the journey of 3G to 4G and to LTE (long-term evolution) would take place much faster in India.
The company said in a statement on Monday 'it has retired equivalent debt from the proceeds (Rs 6,796 crore) of the preferential allotment in June 2013 of 5 per cent equity shares in Bharti Airtel at the rate of Rs 340 per share to Qatar Foundation Endowment'.
Airtel African customers already avail this facility across the company's mobile network in 17 African countries, not having to pay roaming charges on incoming calls while travelling across these countries.
Vodafone Idea will gradually lose market share given its weak balance sheet and limited financial flexibility, says Fitch.
In India, there are 22 services area, or circles, for 2G telecom services and both the companies operate in all the circles.
Indian Telecom giant Bharti Airtel is looking to establish itself as a major player in the Island nation's mobile telephony space as it prepares to launch its $200 million operation in Colombo early next year. Mobile penetration in Sri Lanka is pegged at around 30 per cent, with approximately 2 million mobile users being added each year.
Nokia Life services, where the information is customised and designed to meet customer needs in areas such as education, agriculture, healthcare, livelihood and even spirituality, are delivered as SMS messages to the consumers.
The Department of Telecommunications has suggested forfeiture of the performance bank guarantee given by Hutchison-Essar and imposed a penalty of Rs 50 crore
The awards, presented by the online community Outsourcing Centre, are given for the world's best outsourcing arrangements.
The company, which on March 11 raised $1 billion through a 10-year bond issue, raised $500 million through senior notes.
Bharti Airtel (Singapore) Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of Bharti Airtel, said on Monday it has been awarded the facility-based operator licence in Singapore, which will enable it to operate international carrier facilities from there.
Singapore based telecom firm SingTel, which holds over 30 per cent stake in Bharti Airtel, on Wednesday said it has full faith in the company's corporate governance standards under the leadership of company's chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal.
From the Sensex basket, PowerGrid, Bharti Airtel, Wipro, HDFC Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UltraTech Cement, Asian Paints, Infosys and Reliance Industries were the major laggards. Bajaj Finance, NTPC, Larsen & Toubro, Axis Bank, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank and Bajaj Finserv were among the gainers.
This move gives Airtel and Chinese major immense benefits.
From the Sensex basket, Bharti Airtel, Nestle, Maruti, Tata Motors, HCL Technologies, NTPC, Asian Paints and State Bank of India were the major gainers. Sun Pharma, Reliance Industries, Mahindra & Mahindra, JSW Steel, Tech Mahindra and Bajaj Finance were among the laggards.
Average data usage on Airtel India network grew about three fold to 2611 megabyte (about 2.5 GB) per customer from 904 MB on YoY basis. But the average revenue from the data services per customer declined by 22.7 per cent during the period.
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
Bharti Airtel has sought quashing of the government's September 28 decision directing the service providers to stop providing intra-circle roaming services.
The company claimed it has also become the tenth telecom operator in the world to have more than 40 million subscribers in a single country, Bharti Airtel said in a statement in New Delhi on Wednesday.
Airtel announced complete acquisition of WBSPL in October last year for an estimated Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion).
Bharti Airtel, India's largest private cellular operator, on Thursday announced an investment of over $2 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) in 2007-08 to expand network.
The revenue, which will come through the billing of recharge vouchers, will be shared in the ratio of 75 : 25 by Airtel and MSRTC respectively.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued notices to Bharti Airtel and Vodafone on a BSNL petition, seeking that the private telecom operators pay interconnection charges, along with penalty, for transferring to its network their calls that did not identify phone numbers.
From the Sensex firms, Power Grid, NTPC, Tech Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Tata Motors, IndusInd Bank, Reliance Industries, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Maruti were among the laggards. Asian Paints, Wipro, JSW Steel, Hindustan Unilever, Bajaj Finserv and Mahindra & Mahindra were among the biggest gainers.
Telecom operators Vodafone and Idea Cellular on Monday said they will resume 3G services in circles where they don't have spectrum through intra-circle roaming (ICR) pacts with other operators.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the applications filed by telecom majors, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, seeking rectification of the alleged errors in calculation of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) related dues payable by them. "All the miscellaneous applications are dismissed," a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao said while pronouncing the order. The telecom companies had submitted before the apex court that arithmetical errors in the calculation be rectified and there are cases of duplication of entries.
Airtel Digital TV, the DTH arm of Bharti Airtel, is launching its High Definition service, with set top boxes (STBs) priced at Rs 2,840, further fuelling the price war in the sector.
