Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have sent separate letters to the department of telecommunications (DoT), asking the government to bear the entire burden of nearly Rs 11,000 crore they need to fork out as one-time payment for additional spectrum.
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.
The central government has mandated all ministries, public departments and public sector units to use the telecom services of State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL).
The government is likely to get about Rs 24,000 crore from one-time spectrum fee that has been levied on existing operators for holding radiowaves beyond a prescribed limit.
With services contributing around 57 per cent to the economic growth, finance ministry advisers have made a case for allowing FDI in the retail sector and selling government equity in PSUs, including telecom firms BSNL, MTNL and TCIL, to achieve high GDP expansion.
The government on Thursday ruled out setting up an ombudsman to redress complaints of poor mobile telephony services like call drops saying state-run BSNL/MTNL were taking effective steps to upgrade technology.
Aircel plans to launch 3G services before the cricket World Cup
Chances of a merger of state-run telecom operators BSNL and MTNL look remote, even as the government advised BSNL's management to start talks with the union for taking the company public.
The voice revenue per minute in India is among the lowest in the world at around 50 paise, says Kanwalinder Singh, President,Qualcomm India.
Indian (formerly Indian Airlines) introduces dial-a-ticket scheme.
They said that massive public investment in infrastructure, social sectors and agriculture would generate employment and the Union Budget should give it a priority and allocate necessary funds for this.
Officers of Central Public Sector Units will go an indefinite nationwide strike from December 22, demanding higher salaries and autonomy for the public sector.
Reliance Infocomm Ltd is planning to initiate talks with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on the ongoing Point of Interconnectivity issue
India's telecom subscriber base grew to over 1.17 billion in October with Bharti Airtel maintaining its leadership in mobile subscriber addition that accounts for over 98 per cent of total connections in the country, according to the monthly report released by sector regulator Trai on Wednesday. This is the second consecutive month when Airtel added highest number of subscribers. In September, it had regained the leadership position in subscriber addition after a gap of four years. The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company added 3.67 million new customers in October, taking its total wireless customer base to 330.28 million in October 2020, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) report said.
The dry-run for roll-out of 3G mobile services is finally taking off, as the government has provided low-power spectrum to GSM players like BSNL, MTNL, Bharti and Hutch to carry out interface check on a non-commercial basis.
Amid the ongoing controversy on Wireless in Local Loop services, the limited mobility base of BSNL, MTNL and private operators has risen to 1.49 million, as on March 31, 2003 against 660,000 subscribers in the previous month.
Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have enough capacity to absorb over 113.9 million Vodafone Idea subscribers who are on 4G if Vodafone Idea has to shut operations.
It is estimating that this would help monetise assets worth Rs 10,000 crore.
India's second-largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday posted more than twofold year-on-year jump in its consolidated net profit for the March quarter to Rs 2,008 crore, buoyed by a lift in average revenue per user and an exceptional gain. The telco said its Q4 scorecard was backed by strong performance delivery across the portfolio and its CEO Gopal Vittal, in a statement, exuded optimism about opportunities in the coming years and Airtel being "well-poised" as a company. Airtel, which competes in the market with Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, as well as state-owned BSNL/MTNL, promised to maintain razor sharp focus on financial flexibility, optimising the capital structure and finance cost.
Based on industry estimates, telecom companies, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and BSNL, are expected to invest over $10 billion on buying 5G telecom equipment in the next five years as they transition from non-standalone networks to standalone 5G networks.
Vodafone Idea and Airtel have made provisions for their liabilities arising from the Supreme Court order in their latest September quarter results.
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.
So how is it going to affect the common citizen?
While in all, 15 entities owe the government Rs 1.47 lakh crore -- Rs 92,642 crore in unpaid licence fee and another Rs 55,054 crore in outstanding spectrum usage charges, it is not immediately clear just how much of that has been sought by the government by midnight.
While existing players are expected to first drop prices, acquisition of smaller firms by larger ones is likely in future
The Department of Telecom may bar operators holding 3G airwaves from sharing the high-speed spectrum.
Three more positive cases of novel coronavirus have been reported in India.
BSNL, MTNL launch free night calling to win back consumers lost to mobile boom
'Make in India' could suffer the same fate as did privatisation and the command economy, says Ajit Balakrishnan.
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