Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Thursday that the current access deficit charge of 11 per cent must be brought down to lower the tariffs and enable the sector achieve higher mobile growth like China.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd lost 32.6 lakh subscribers in 2003-04 compared to 17.9 lakh in the previous year even as 17.5 lakh people were waiting to get new connections from the state-owned telecom company as on March 31, 2004.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is all set to emerge as a major service tax payer to the central government with the amount expected to touch Rs 1,800 crore (Rs 18 crore) during 2003-04.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the public-sector telecom company, on Thursday said it was confident of expanding its mobile subscriber base to 25 million from five million in a year's time.
In a bid to enable subscribers to choose their own long distance operator, Trai now plans to start work on carrier access code.
BSNL is to invest around Rs 932 crore for infrastructure development in Maharashtra circle, even as the telecom services provider is expecting a 17.4% increase in revenue to post Rs 3,075 crore by March 2004 from the circle.
In an attempt to woo the low income group, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Tuesday announced a new scheme `Sulabh' for basic phone subscribers with the facility of only incoming calls at rentals ranging between Rs 99 to Rs 160 a month.
The government is considering a financial package of Rs 18,515 crore (Rs 185.15 billion) for the state owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for providing services in the rural areas.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Thursday announced an up to 66 per cent reduction in its cellular tariff and also introduced a new package Plan 525, where cellular to cellular calls are as low as 40 paise.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd said on Tuesday that its customers would continue to avail of the 47 per cent domestic long distance rate cut on fixed-to-fixed line call beyond 500 km, for another month, till May.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is expecting a 20-25 per cent surge in its domestic long distance traffic volume following a 47 per cent cut in STD rates earlier this week.
In a big bonanza to telecom customers, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Monday announced a massive up to 47 per cent cut in domestic long distance rates on fixed line phones beyond 500 km.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will reduce ISD (international subscriber dialling) tariffs for Sri Lanka by 40 per cent and to Middle East countries by 20 per cent from October 1.
The call charges for distance beyond 100 km will be Rs 1.80 per minute in place of Rs 2.40 per minute earlier, the company's Chairman Prithipal Singh said in New Delhi.
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd on Monday slashed international long distance tariffs by up to 70 per cent on account of the festive season, beginning October 21 mid-night to November 21.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has unveiled a new plan, 'Plan 140', for its mobile post-paid customers, even as the service provider has extended its special scheme for CellOne connections up to October 31, 2003.
An internal committee of Department of Telecom had alleged that Bharti Airtel had continued to route national and international calls as local calls under a scheme till 2005 despite being told to stop it in 2003.
Oil explorer ONGC again emerged as the highest profit-making PSU of the country during 2012-13 while telecom major BSNL turned out to be the biggest loss-making enterprise, says the Economic Survey.
Launched in March, it triggers re-verification of suspected fraudulent numbers. Failing re-verification, the number will be disconnected.
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) said on Tuesday that as many as 78,569 employees have opted for VRS, and added that it expects to save Rs 1,300 crore in wage bills this fiscal after the scheme becomes effective in January.
DoT is even considering measures to urge private telecom operators to bring down their dependence on Chinese-made telecom equipment.
This was a rare instance when Gandhi raised an issue during the Zero Hour.
The divestment ministry would concentrate on "legal option" to resolve the divestment impasse arising out of the Supreme Court verdict on HPCL and BPCL, but would continue with residual stake sale plans in companies like CMC Ltd and VSNL.
In all, 25 Chairman-cum-Managing Director (CMD) posts, 8 MD posts and 2 Chairman posts are lying vacant, according to a written reply by Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Public Enterprises P Radhakrishnan in the Lok Sabha.
Shares of Bharti Airtel on Wednesday fell 6 per cent amid reports that the government is learnt to have approved levying of Rs 650-crore penalty on the company for violating roaming norms in 13 service areas between 2003 and 2005.
SBI Capital Markets Limited, the merchant banking arm of SBI, is eyeing the twin accounts of HPCL and BPCL for managing the divestment programmes of the 2 oil cos.
BSNL will start providing telecom services, both wireless and fixed line, in Mumbai and Delhi on behalf of MTNL from January 1 on a pilot basis for five to six months.
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.
Market concentration in the country's telecom sector continues to scale new heights despite government bailouts of public-sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), and private-sector Vodafone Idea. The combined revenue (or net sales) share of the country's top two telecom operators - Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio - in the sector's total reached an all-time high of nearly 72 per cent in FY23 from 70.4 per cent in FY22 and around 60 per cent in FY20. The net sales of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel India were Rs 1.67 trillion in FY23, up 18.6 per cent from the Rs 1.4 trillion a year earlier.
Will be valid only for the first two months of a customer's joining
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