UK telecom giant Vodafone has offloaded its 5.6 per cent direct stake in India's mobile leader Bharti Airtel to promoter Sunil Mittal's group for $1.6 billion, coinciding its acquisition of controlling stake in Hutch-Essar.
The launch of internet-enabled Jio Bharat phones at an "attractive pricing" will enable Jio to gain market share at the lower end segment and signals a reduced probability of tariff hike in the near term, brokerages tracking the sector said. Jio on Monday launched internet-enabled Jio Bharat phones at Rs 999, packing in a cheaper monthly plan of Rs 123 for unlimited voice calls and 14 GB data. The new offering aims to accelerate the '2G Mukt Bharat' vision, as India still has 250 million mobile subscribers trapped in the 2G era with feature phones.
Domestic cellular major Bharti Airtel on Friday entered into the elite league of corporate entities with a market value of over Rs 1 trillion, joining ranks with giants like Reliance Industries, Infosys, ONGC, NTPC and TCS.
Benchmark indices--Sensex and Nifty--were 0.7-0.8 per cent higher from the Saturday closing. Among the widely-tracked Nifty 50 stocks, 39 advanced and the rest 11 declined at the opening bell. Among the individual stocks, Cipla, ICICI Bank, Sun Pharma, Power Grid Corp, and Bharti Airtel were the top five gainers, while Asian Paints, Hindustan Unilever, Britania, HDFC Bank, and BPCL the losers, NSE data showed. On Monday, Indian stock exchanges were closed for trading on the occasion of Pran Pratistha of Ram Temple in Ayodhya.
Airtel became the first private telecom operator to launch mobile phone services in Jammu and Kashmir and said that it would invest Rs 125 crore\n\nin the state by the end of this fiscal.
HCL Technologies was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 5.58 per cent, followed by Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys, State Bank of India, Tech Mahindra, Tata Steel, NTPC and Wipro. In contrast, Nestle, Bharti Airtel, Maruti and ITC were among the laggards.
Bharti Airtel said on Wednesday the government has alloted additional spectrum to the company in five telecom circles in the country. The five circles are West Bengal, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (west), Assam and Haryana.
Analysts say the next phase of growth for telecom operators would be driven by data businesses, as voice call rates have stabilised and growth in subscriber numbers has reached a point of stagnation.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel on Wednesday reported over two-fold jump in consolidated net profit at Rs 1,436.5 crore in the third quarter of 2014-15 on the back of continued growth in mobile data revenue.
The launch of 5G services in India turbocharged mobile download speeds here, pushing the country's ranking 72 notches higher to 47th spot in Speedtest Global Index, ahead of nations like Japan, the UK and Brazil, according to Ookla. India's speed performance has zoomed up 3.59 times since the introduction of 5G, it said dubbing the country's 5G advancement as "remarkable". In this global pecking order, India ranked not only ahead of its neighbours like Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Pakistan, but also some G20 countries, such as Mexico (90th), Turkey (68th), the UK (62nd), Japan (58th), Brazil (50th place), and South Africa (48th place).
The move by three major telecom service providers - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular - to set up a consortium for passive infrastructure is gaining ground, but independent telecom infrastructure providers are yet to be convinced.
Bharti Retail has started offering facility to pay shopping bills through mobile phones
The Minister was talking to media on sidelines of a function organised by Department of Telecommunication for new version of Internet addresses, IPv6.
India's largest cellular service company Bharti Airtel will invest $600 million in Nigeria's mobile market following its take over of Zain Telecom's African business for around SUD 10.7 billion.
In a disclosure on the National Stock Exchange, Airtel said Kohli sold 70,000 shares in the company on March 9.
The company said in a statement that 'it has entered into a binding agreement with Qatar Foundation Endowment, under which Bharti will issue 199,870,006 of its new shares to QFE representing a shareholding of 5 per cent in the Company, post issuance of the new shares."
From the Sensex pack, Nestle, Tata Consultancy Services, IndusInd Bank, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel, Tech Mahindra, UltraTech Cement, Kotak Mahindra Bank and Hindustan Unilever were among the major laggards. Tata Steel, JSW Steel, HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, Power Grid and Mahindra & Mahindra were among the gainers.
Telecom as a market is heading towards saturation and Airtel, the industry leader, is strongly impacted. The company needs to do nothing short of re-inventing itself if it wants to keep its earlier growth momentum going.
Sunil Mittal is confident that Airtel will retain its numero uno position, inspite of Vodafone's competition.
The company, which has 3G licences for 13 circles, is also in talks with other service providers to roll out the services in the remaining 10 circles as part of its roaming offerings.
Total expenses of the company increased by 11.76 per cent at Rs 9,816.3 crore (Rs 98.16 billion) during the reported quarter from Rs 8,782.9 crore (Rs 87.82 billion) in the corresponding period of previous fiscal, the company said in a BSE filing.
Among the Sensex firms, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, HCL Technologies, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro and JSW Steel were the major gainers during the morning deals. Nestle, Bharti Airtel, Axis Bank ITC were among the laggards.
iPhone 3G combines all the features of iPhone with 3G networking, which is said to be two times faster than the first generation iPhone. It has built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, a joint press release said. It also has iPhone 2.0 software, which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK.
Rajya Sabha MP Kapil Sibal on Friday described the electoral bonds scheme as a 'very big scam' and demanded that a special investigation team (SIT) be set up with court-appointed officials to probe the alleged quid pro quo and wrongdoings under it.
Major laggards among Sensex constituents included Bharti Airtel, Hindustan Unilever, Tata Steel and ITC. Power Grid, UltraTech Cement, NTPC and Titan emerged as winners.
Disappointing quarterly earnings numbers and revenue forecast from IT services company Wipro also weighed on investor sentiments. The 30-share BSE Sensex fell 247.78 points or 0.38 per cent to settle at 65,629.24 points. During the day, it plunged 533.52 points or 0.80 per cent to 65,343.50 points.
If he bets big, billionaire Mukesh Ambani will emerge from this week's airwave auction armed with spectrum that could make his Reliance Industries Ltd a formidable rival to market leaders Bharti Airtel Ltd and Vodafone Group.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India will choose between Bharti Airtel and Sahara Group on Monday as the new team sponsor, as both are the only firms left in the fray at the end of the deadline for submitting the bids for rights along with the requisite security deposit.
Total revenue, as per the US accounting rules, rose over one per cent to Rs 9,772.20 crore (Rs 97.72 billion) during the December quarter, from Rs 9,633.4 crore (Rs 96.33 billion) in the corresponding period last year, Bharti Airtel said.
Voice calling will be free on Jio phones for life and post December 31, 10 data plans will be offered
Riding on a bull run, equity investors became richer by Rs 128.77 lakh crore in the 2023-24 fiscal, driven by robust fundamentals of the Indian economy, increased investment inflows and promising corporate earnings. After a muted performance in 2022-23, equity markets made a remarkable recovery in FY24, giving handsome returns to investors. The 30-share BSE Sensex climbed 14,659.83 points or 24.85 per cent in 2023-24.
ITC was the biggest loser from the Sensex pack, sliding 2.04 per cent, followed by Power Grid, Reliance Industries, Larsen & Toubro, Nestle, Kotak Mahindra Bank, Bajaj Finance and JSW Steel. On the other hand, Titan, State Bank of India, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Tata Steel, Sun Pharma, Tech Mahindra and Bharti Airtel were the gainers.
UltraTech Cement was the biggest gainer in the Sensex pack, rising 2.43 per cent, followed by NTPC, Tata Motors, Infosys, Power Grid, Mahindra & Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, Maruti, Wipro and SBI were the major gainers. In contrast, Tata Steel, Bharti Airtel, Bajaj Finserv, Axis Bank, Bajaj Finance and JSW Steel were the major laggards.
Gains in IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech, TCS, Tech Mahindra, NTPC, ITC, JSW Steel and Tata Steel helped the barometer scale a fresh high. Axis Bank fell the most by 1.26 per cent, M&M by 0.99 per cent and Hindustan Unilever by 0.67 per cent. Maruti, Bajaj Finserv, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank and Infosys also declined.
Bharti Airtel announced on Friday that its customers would be able to avail of 'seamless roaming services' on 3G networks across the world, including Japan and South Korea.
Titan surged 2.98 per cent, followed by IndusInd Bank, ITC, JSW Steel, Infosys, Tech Mahindra, Tata Consultancy Services and Maruti. Hindustan Unilever, Asian Paints, Bharti Airtel and HDFC Bank were among the laggards.
The pack is available for Rs 1,495 for existing users and Rs 1,494 for new users, and effectively brings down 4G data rates to Rs 50 per GB
The government has held back allocating additional spectrum to Bharti Airtel in Orissa, in view of the telecom tribunal's recent judgment that GSM operators have no vested right to get airwaves beyond 6.2 MHz.
