The Big Two telecom companies have accelerated their moves towards this next-gen technology, though they have chosen very different routes to getting there.
The next spectrum auction will be held in late February 2024 and the reserve price for most bands will remain the same as the 2022 auction, department of telecommunications (DoT) officials have said. The government expects operators to go for low bands beginning in 600 megahertz (MHz), licences for many of which are lapsing soon. Back in September 2021, the government had decided that spectrum auctions should be held annually.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday announced the commercial launch of 4G services in 296 towns across India after testing the market in select cities.
27 large listed firms give double-digit hikes to top executives despite a decline in net profit.
Telephone subscribers in the country is expected to reach 300-400 million by 2010 from 100 million currently, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and MD, Bharti Airtel said.
This is the last lot of payments that telcos will make towards deferred spectrum liabilities, as the Union Cabinet had late last year approved a two-year moratorium on such spectrum payment dues.
Fiscal pressure for the Indian economy is gradually rising, suggested analysts at Jefferies in a recent note, as oil prices (Brent) - which are close to the $100 a barrel mark - continue to climb ahead of a busy election calendar. They added that the sharp rally in the equity markets during the last few months has made valuations costly. As a result, Jefferies expects the Indian markets to remain choppy in the near term.
The IPO boom in 2023 added four new promoters to the billionaires' list.
Tata Steel was the top gainer in the Sensex pack, zooming 7.57 per cent, followed by Sun Pharma, IndusInd Bank, L&T, ITC and HCL Tech.
Vodafone Idea on Monday paid Rs 2,500 crore to DoT and promised to pay another Rs 1,000 crore before the end of the week.
Tata Steel, others sell assets abroad after taking massive impairments.
Indian telecom seems to be getting back on its feet.
Among the Sensex firms, Bajaj Finance emerged as the biggest gainer by climbing 2.95 per cent. Tata Motors, Bajaj Finserv, IndusInd Bank, Sun Pharma, Mahindra & Mahindra, State Bank of India, Larsen & Toubro, HDFC, HDFC Bank, Maruti, Reliance Industries and Bharti Airtel were the other major winners. HCL Technologies, Axis Bank, ICICI Bank, Tech Mahindra and Titan were among the laggards.
With the new entity coming in force, Bharti Airtel will lose the tag of India's biggest telecom service provider to the new entity.
The rupee breached the 80-mark against the dollar on Tuesday. The steady depreciation in the value of the rupee against the US dollar is likely to prove expensive for corporate India. The listed companies' revenue expenses in foreign currency or imports exceed their export revenues or revenue earnings in forex. In their latest financial year, BSE500 companies, excluding banks and non-banking finance companies and insurance (BFSI), reported combined forex expenses of Rs 12.31 trillion against forex earnings of around Rs 10 trillion.
India Inc's cash pile was up 13.8 per cent last fiscal year, thanks to a combination of higher profits in sectors such as IT and fund raising by top companies such a Reliance Industries, Bharti Airtel and Tata Motors, among others.
Investor wealth zoomed over Rs 10.48 lakh crore in two days as the Budget-driven market euphoria continued to charge bulls on Tuesday.
Bharti Televentures, in association with a Canada-based firm, on Tuesday launched Blackberry handheld devices offering 'always on' connectivity, targeted at high-end customers.
Telecom companies have been desperately waiting for a bailout package from the government after a Supreme Court order put their statutory liabilities at Rs 1.47 lakh crore.
Hero MotoCorp's promoter Pawan Munjal emerged as the highest paid director.
Not surprisingly, equity investors are bidding-up stock prices across sectors and the broader market is now more valuable than pre-Covid levels.
In a pre-Budget meeting with Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, the corporate leaders highlighted several issues, including certain income tax matters which were coming in the way of mergers and acquisitions or slowing them down and roles that need to be played by state businesses to prosper at the ground level.
Mukesh Ambani remains the country's wealthiest promoter as his stake in Reliance is now worth Rs 3.25 trillion!
'We always believe that if you focus on the goal, you will overcome all obstacles. If you focus on the obstacles, you will never achieve your goal.'
Among Sensex components, shares of Reliance Industries, India's largest company by market value, stole the show by surging 1.61 per cent to their highest in over three months.
Barring oil and gas, all BSE sectoral indices finished in the green.
It is learnt that the defence ministry is refusing to let go of its 100 MHz spectrum, which was allotted earlier. In that case, the department of telecommunications (DoT) will be left with only 175 MW of 5G spectrum of the total 300 MHz.
The Department of Post, Tech Mahindra, Videocon Group and stock exchange NSE have joined big corporates like Ambanis and Birlas to seek entry into banking business through newly created niche category of Payments and Small Finance Banks.
Of these, three stocks belong to the automobile pack and two are from the pharma.
'The book captures Rana Kapoor's hunger for real estate leading to bungalows in Delhi, Mumbai, London and other cities; the multiple companies -- over 100 -- to fund his family's various ventures; the attempt to game the system by showing lower non-performing assets,' notes Joydeep Ghosh.
Commercial services may start in Mar-Apr next year
The 30-share Sensex ended up 204 points at 27,215 and the 50-share Nifty ended up 59 points at 8,238.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Telecom Secretary J S Deepak has resolved the toughest issues facing the sector, but his real test will be in delivering on the govt's Digital India dream
The Sensex ended lower on unfavourable cues.
Telecom shares rallied on hopes that they would hike tariffs after huge investments to acquire spectrum.
After a two year run-in with controversies, telecom sector now looks stable and seems back on its feet with initial investment proposal of over Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) received in 2013.
IT exporters were the top gainers amid a weak rupee along with select index heavyweights.
Sensex witnessed the biggest single day gain since May 2009 in absolute terms.
In the not too distant future, you could see 5G technology being used for functions such as remotely-performed robotic surgeries, mine equipment operated remotely or cars driven by someone sitting hundreds of miles away. While these ideas will certainly find application globally, the urgent need for them in India could spur swifter adoption here than elsewhere.
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