The telecom department is not contemplating providing any relief to Vodafone Idea with regard to adjusted gross revenue, Minister of State for Communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said on Monday. "We have recently converted a lot of their debt into equity.
Work on BSNL, MTNL sell-off plans to begin
TRAI removed network interconnection charges.
New customer additions by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel pushed the Indian telecom subscriber base past 120.5 crore in June, according to a Trai report released on Tuesday. The wireless subscriber base grew marginally to over 117 crore and wireline connections in the country increased to 3.51 crore in June from 116.89 crore and 3.47 crore, respectively, in May, as per data released in Trai's subscriber report for June.
The Centre is considering relaxing some norms that led to the failure in attracting bids for assets of Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) as they look to restart the auction for their non-core assets. The Department of Investment and Public Asset Management (DIPAM) had listed six properties of BSNL and MTNL for sale through its new e-bidding portal, developed by state-run MSTC, but the auction failed to garner an adequate interest. DIPAM had asked government-appointed property consultants to identify issues in the bidding criteria for resolution.
Monetising real estate assets is part of the overall relief package that would be used to retire debts, upgrade networks, and offer VRS aimed at reducing the telcos' employee strength by half.
At present MTNL and BSNL do not impose roaming charges for mobile internet services on each others customers.
'The announcement has come too late. This should have been done years ago.'
Group of ministers to discuss proposal to split companies into three entities, move seen as precursor to merger.
A decision on the merger will take some time as there are procedural problems with MTNL being a listed entity and BSNL non-listed.
A Group of Ministers will consider a proposal to let BSNL and MTNL venture into cable TV and broadcasting services to help infuse life into the loss making companies.
Public sector telecom majors Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Friday launched broadband Internet services in over 200 cities across the country, fixing a highly competitive Rs 500 per month tariff for home users.
The consortium led by ICICI Securities is likely to submit by January end its first report containing the options of synergising the operations of two telecom public sector undertakings -- BSNL and MTNL.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has started talks on synergising operations with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, which offers telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai.
Minister said the government wants to bring them back to profitability.
BSNL has been among the top three net losers in terms of subscribers. MTNL, which operates in only the Delhi and Mumbai circles, has lost, too.
The proposal gains significance because the merger plan was given a quiet burial under former telecom minister A Raja.
If candidates from the private sector are selected, this will be the first time that these telecom PSUs are headed by chiefs from the private sector.
Minister of State for Communication Shakeel Ahmad said that the exact modalities for effecting it would take some time because of the complexities involved.
The government plans to consider the issue of merger between BSNL and MTNL on the basis of suggestions made by a financial consultant appointed by the centre, chairman and managing director of BSNL A K Sinha said.
The government on Thursday said it has not taken any decision so far regarding the merger of telecom public sector undertakings BSNL and MTNL.
The central government has no plans of divesting stakes in public sector telecom firms - BSNL and MTNL - as the two were performing well in the competitive telecom sector.
A panel said BSNL can claim tax breaks if it merges with a loss-making ITI and suggested BSNL can also merge MTNL with itself.
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd have submitted alternate basic (landline) telephony tariff plans, pegging the rates much below the ceiling rates announced by TRAI
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd on Tuesday cut STD rates to lower the mobile-to-mobile call charges from a peak of Rs 9 a minute to Rs 4.80 a minute.
The government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited would not be privatised in the near future.\n\n\n\n
Two years after having allotted third-generation (3G) spectrum without any contest to its own telecom companies, on the promise that they'd match the prices later paid by private sector winners of the auction for it, the communications ministry now wants them to get it for free.
The telecom majors should focus on improving service quality with a strong partner, and not on one-shot stake sales.
The government last month had approved a plum Rs 69,000 crore revival package for BSNL and MTNL that includes merging the two loss-making firms, monetising their assets and offering VRS to employees so that the combined entity turns profitable in two years.
The asset monetisation exercise in the first phase will help BSNL shave off its Rs 14,000-crore debt. The government has said that these firms are strategically important and will not be closed down or divested.
The package includes raising of Rs 15,000 crore sovereign bonds to meet the immediate capital requirement of both the companies, 4G spectrum allocation worth Rs 20,140 crore, Rs 29,937 crore for VRS covering 50 per cent of their employees, and Rs 3,674 crore for goods and services tax that will be levied on allocation of radiowaves.
The race for control of Kuwait-headquartered Zain Telecom has quickened with the Indian consortium led by Delhi-based Vavasi group saying it is willing to give a majority stake in the consortium to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd or Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, depending on which company gets government approval to go ahead with the deal.
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad made it clear that as of now, the government has no plans to merge BSNL and MTNL.
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