With hopes of raising funds through an initial public offer (IPO) or selling a stake to a strategic investor fading due to stiff opposition from the unions, the government is working on a proposal for a private placement of shares for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), India's fifth-largest telecom company,
In yet another instance of evasion of levy, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has asked private operators Tata Teleservices and Reliance Infocomm to pay up the charges for positioning their fixed wireless phones as mobile services.
Country's top telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited on Friday welcomed the government decision to introduce mobile number portability saying it would make the sector more competitive. The government, on November 12, announced its decision to allow mobile users in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to switch their service provider while retaining the same number.
State-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) says it expects to increase its visibility in the domestic and international markets, besides improving company performance, as a fallout of the proposed initial public offering (IPO) of equity.
The general strike called against the ongoing Telangana agitation in Andhra and Rayalseema region turned violent at many places on Monday. The bandh called by the all party Joint Action Committee in favour of united Andhra Pradesh hit the normal life in all the 13 districts of the two regions.
A person who is in the habit of remaining absent without prior sanction of leave and remains absent for a long period of more than 10 days without leave or intimation, is not somebody who is devoted to duty or maintains integrity. The petitioner's conduct needs to be tested on this anvil, the judges said.
Tensions between private telecom players and the government ratcheted up a notch after it was discovered that state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was given additional spectrum of up to 10 MHz for GSM technology services in over 16 circles even as private competitors have been waiting to be allotted spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications since December 2006.
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is likely to exit the consortium comprising Delhi-based Vavasi Group and Malaysia's Al-Bukhary to acquire 46 per cent in Kuwait's Zain Telecom.Talks, which have been on for two months, have fallen through over valuations, and Vavasi is expected to announce a new consortium partner in a week or two. Vavasi Group Managing Director Farid Afruddin declined to comment on this information.
Details of railway accidents can from now on be obtained from any part of the country by dialling telephone no 1072.
The scheme, 'Maharashtra-Goa Unlimited', is being launched from August 1, Chief General Manager, BSNL Maharashtra Circle, Chandraprakash told reporters in Nagpur on Monday.
Union leaders say that Raja only assured the members that a fresh tender for the second phase of the contract would be issued soon, but was unwilling to commit on other aspects of their demand.
The company is in advanced stages of negotiations with four cellular operators and is expected to announce a couple of deals soon.
BSNL has just launched a closed user group plan for Other Backward classes (OBCs) in Maharashtra. It has tied up with the Satyashodhak OBC Parishad, a non-political organisation, for a prepaid talk time plan at nominal charges.
Reliance Infocomm is once again giving incumbents Bharat Sanchar Nigam and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd a run for their money.
The move will require a one-time payment of Rs 4,000-5,000 crore (Rs 40-50 billion), for which DoT would give financial support, a senior official from the latter told Business Standard.
BSNL had disconnected the point of interconnection of Reliance Communications on May 23 and May 31 in Haryana and on May 4 in Punjab claiming non-payment of pending dues by the private telco.
The stay order given by the Delhi high court on the entire process of appointment is still to be vacated.
BSNL is aggressively working towards sharing its passive as well as active infrastructure with existing and new telecom operators. It said the Master Sharing Agreement for sharing BSNL towers is in the final stages with some telecom operators and is likely to be finalised soon. In addition, BSNL has also decided to hire infrastructure from various infrastructure providers to speed up its roll out for mobile network in different states.
The empowered group of ministers (EGoM) on telecom headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram on Monday decided to impose a one-time fee on incumbent operators prospectively for spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz in GSM and 2.5 MHz in CDMA.
The Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd on Friday announced up to 25 per cent reduction in ISD (international subscriber dialling) rates for calls made to destinations like the United States, the Untied Kingdom and South East Asian countries.
BSNL had proposed to dilute 10 per cent of the government's equity holding through an IPO to raise about $10 billion. However, the offering was put off amid opposition from the employees union. The company is yet to decide on a bidder for the western region.
Eager to expand its footprint overseas, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited said on Tuesday it has a war-chest of about $6 billion (approximately Rs 30,000 crore) and is looking for acquisitions, especially in South Africa. The PSU is looking at Africa as an area of focus as it is an emerging region and also culturally, financially, African countries suit more to India firms.
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Private telecom operators on Friday raised serious concerns over BSNL's non-compliance with regard to implementation of interconnect user charge saying they (BSNL) were completely violating Trai's regulations.
Telecom equipment vendor Nokia-Siemens filed a case in the Delhi High Court today against its disqualification on technical grounds as a bidder for state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's tender for 94 million lines, one of the world's largest telecom contracts worth over Rs 50,000 crore.
The BSNL board had last year approved a plan under which the government would divest 10 per cent of its shares to the public. But opposition from the unions backed by the Left parties -- which supported the United Progressive Alliance in the last Parliament -- had stalled the process. That opposition has abated, now that the Left is no longer a factor in the current ruling alliance.
Bharti Airtel, India's largest private cellular operator, on Thursday announced an investment of over $2 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) in 2007-08 to expand network.
Close on the heels of BSNL slashing its international tariffs, state-owned MTNL on Wednesday announced a 40 per cent reduction in ISD rates to the United States and Europe for a month, as part of a festive offer.
Concerned over mobile signals crossing the international border, the department of telecom is planning to take action against telecom operators
The Supreme Court admitted an appeal by BSNL challenging a TDSAT decision expressing inability to penalise Bharti Telesonics Ltd for allegedly violating conditional clearance for providing national long distance telephone service.
With demand for mobile phone connections exceeding expectations in Srinagar, BSNL on Wednesday ordered another 10,000 application forms to cope with the rush even as a company official was suspended for unauthorised possession of forms.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has worked out an elaborate plan for the development of telecommunications network along the ancient silk route following the recent Sino-Indian agreement on border trade through Nathula in East Sikkim.
Telecom operators in India currently provide 2G and 2.5 G services to subscribers. Last year, the government of India, through its enterprise -- BSNL -- soft-launched third generation or 3G services in Delhi.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd authorities in the north-east have drawn the Centre's attention to their inability in restricting Bangladesh telephone services in some bordering areas of the region.
The 'Winknet Mf50' router comes in handy when there is a need to connect more than one device on a single SIM card.
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