After the $11.1 billion winning bid by Vodafone for Hutchison, the spotlight now shifts to the Ruia-owned BPL Mobile Communications.
Cellular service provider BPL Mobile Communications Ltd launched a new pre-paid calling card, an extension of its existing Mobile on the Spot.
Even as cellular companies announced on Tuesday free incoming calls on their network, BPL Mobile has increased the rentals and access fee of both its pre-paid and post-paid users by Rs 100 and Rs 54 respectively from January 24.
This follows the expiry of its brand-use agreement with the BPL Group. The company, which faces an ownership battle between the Ruias of the Essar Group and the UK-based Vodafone, does not expect 'any issues' to arise from the change. "Loop is an extension of an ongoing campaign, Get in the Loop, and it will be easy for our subscribers to identify with this new brand name," said BPL Mobile Director and CEO Sanjeev Chachondia.
BPL Mobile will role out a slew of products and services next week.
The Ruias of Essar have rejected an offer by the Aditya Birla group's Idea Cellular to acquire BPL Mobile's Mumbai circle, which lost heavily on its valuations due to the corporate battle between its shareholders.
The company is exploring fund raising options to start services in 22 circles in the next two years.
It is not clear, however, whether the two players are considering a majority stake or would be content as investors with 26 per cent.
Joining the rush of companies looking for spectrum, BPL Mobile has applied for a unified access service licence in 21 of the country's 23 telecom circles.
BPL Mobile Cellular will invest Rs 1,000 crore for the development of infrastructure in the next 12 months, and install 550 base stations even as the mobile telephony service provider is all set to launch Push-To-Talk services.
BPL Mobile is exploring options to hive off its tower business into a separate company and is embarking on a capacity addition initiative
The company has launched a new card, the India One Pre-paid, under which users can make STD calls at a flat rate of Re 1 per minute. SMSes to any destination in the country would also be charged at a flat rate of Re 1 per message, BPL Mobile director and CEO S Subramaniam told Business Standard in an interview.
The Essar group-owned company's agreement with the Bangalore-based BPL group, which owns the brand through its flagship firm, had expired on March this year.
The Essar group-owned BPL Mobile is believed to be seeking an extension to use the 'BPL' brand name that is owned by Bangalore-based industrialist TPG Nambiar
Telecom service provider BPL Mobile on Monday launched 'Project Rapid Growth' and said it will invest Rs 625 crore (Rs 6.25 billion) during the current fiscal to add 1.5 million wirefree consumers and capture 35 per cent market share in new customer
BPL Mobile, one of Mumbai's oldest cellular phone operator, is looking at dropping its existing brand name as Essar's agreement with the TPG Nambiar-owned BPL on the use of its trademark expires by March-end.
Idea Cellular and BPL Mobile announced interconnect for multimedia messaging service.
The termination of the agreement for Mumbai does not affect the other three circles, for which a merger with Hutchison Essar has already been done.
In the biggest synergy in the Indian telecom industry, leading cellular service providers BPL Mobile, Escotel, RPG Cellular and Spice Telecom, have forged what they have named the 'MobileFirst' Alliance to provide enhanced value to their customers.
In a major acquisition in the telecom sector, the Ruia-controlled Essar Group on Wednesday bought a controlling stake in BPL Communications for a consideration of over Rs 4,400 crore (Rs 44 billion).
The dispute between Vodafone and the Ruia-owned Essar Group, its 33 per cent partners in Vodafone-Essar, over ownership of BPL Mobile deepened this week after the UK-based telecom major alleged that Essar had altered the share structure of the Mumbai service provider in violation of a 2006 agreement
In line with other cellular operators, BPL Mobile has also lowered STD rates to Rs 1.99 from the pre-IUC (inter-connect usage charges) of Rs 2.99 per 60-second pulse rate to landline and wireless in local loop phones.
After Airtel, BPL Mobile is to introduce a 'Goodwill Pack' enabling roam free service to Pakistan from Tuesday following the Centre's decision to allow the facility for a period of four months.
Hutchison Telecom International Ltd, the Hong-Kong based parent of Hutchison that operates the Hutch-Essar JV in India with Essar group, has said the termination of BPL Mobile Mumbai circle merger deal by its Indian partner was wrong.
The spat between Essar and Hutchison for the acquisition of BPL (Mumbai) circle is far from over with the Indian corporate maintaining that the Department of Telecom approval for acquisition of BPL shares is yet to come.
Whether Rajeev Chandrasekhar wins or not, Thiruvananthapuram will likely never see such an interesting contest again.
The SC on Monday deferred by two weeks the hearing on state-run BSNL's appeal against the order of a tribunal bench that asked it to pay interest to BPL Mobile Cellular for delaying payments toward calls made to the private company's network.
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