Experts argue that the cost savings both in terms of capex as well as operating costs can be substantial in the next one to two years.
The company wants to woo post-paid customers and rent out its assets to cut debt.
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.
App-based communication services providers and Indian telcos are at loggerheads over the SIM-binding directions issued by the department of telecom, which are to be complied with by the end of February 2026.
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.
Bharti Airtel announced on Tuesday it would hive off its mobile tower and infrastructure business into a 100 per cent subsidiary.
The deal between Bharti group and Tata Teleservices is yet another example of how swiftly things can change in business.
Telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea on Tuesday submitted applications to participate in the Rs 3.92 lakh crore spectrum auction scheduled to start from March 1, according to official sources. This round of auction will be held for 2,251.25 Megahertz (MHz) in seven frequency bands -- 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz and 2500 Mhz -- at a cumulative base price of Rs 3.92 lakh crore. "Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have submitted applications (for the spectrum auction)," an official source told PTI.
The missive has, however, polarised stakeholders, with mobile operators under COAI coming out in its support, while digital platforms under the aegis of Broadband India Forum expressing "serious concerns" around overreach and calling for a pause in implementation of timelines.
Telkom Kenya has a monopoly on landline services in the country. If an Indian company wins the bid, it will enable the company to enter the country's telecom market, according to news reports in international press.
On Monday, Ambani had said the Reliance group was open to join hands with Bharti Airtel for improving telecom network for 4G services in Punjab.
Indian telecommunications companies are ringing louder. Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications are among the big league of gloal telecom companies.
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 government is likely to release spectrum on September one this year after it gets vacated by the defence forces.
The three companies for sale are Reliance Communications, Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infratel.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday submitted its bid for 3G spectrum, auction for which starts from April 9.
Bharti Airtel remained the top telecom pick of Indian companies followed by Reliance Communications, according to the latest report by world's leading financial management and advisory company Merril Lynch.
High-end mobile device Blackberry, which was till now available only with the GSM operators, will be soon launched on CDMA platform by Reliance Communications.
The company had announced similar pricing for Sri Lanka, where its application was in advanced stages of regulatory clearance.
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Saturday reacted sharply to rival Bharti Airtel's statement that others have equal opportunity to succeed, saying "if Bharti honestly believes in competition, it should welcome entry of RCom and other new players in GSM" segment.
India's space regulator INSPACe has granted a license to Starlink to offer space-based internet services in the country. The authorization is valid for five years and subject to regulatory provisions and clearances.
Reacting sharply to Bharti Airtel's offer to pay Rs 2,650 crore (Rs 26.50 billion) for all-India spectrum, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Monday said said the GSM operator was trying to prevent competition. "This is another ploy of Bharti to prevent competition. It shows their (Bharti's) anti-consumer and anti-competitive behaviour," an RCom spokesperson said.
TTSL is now behind only Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone, the company said in a statement.
Apex auditor CAG on Friday lamented that private telecom operators are not providing their account books to it, despite a request from the government.
Telecom firms like Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and MTNL have shown interest to start IPTV services, where television signal is carried to homes through telecom lines and broadband.
The Indian government has emerged as the biggest winner.
The government will start allotting third generation (3G) spectrum from Wednesday to successful bidders, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar, among others. A senior DoT official, said the allotment of 3G spectrum will start on Wednesday.
Senior official from the department of telecommunication said the deck has been cleared and the department will handover the spectrum to the operators on Wednesday.
Analysts expect that Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications (RCom) and Idea Cellular will post over 50 per cent annual growth in revenues (year-on-year) and more than 10 per cent sequential growth (over the previous quarter). Bharti continues to lead in the subscriber addition race (2.1 million in August).
The total revenues and net profit of the top six Indian telecom players, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, BSNL, Hutchison Essar, MTNL and Idea Cellular, more than doubled during the last two years.
The Sensex finally ended with a gain of 282 points at 16,846.
Like Bharti, India 's largest mobile operator, Reliance has global aspirations. After losing last year's keenly-contested $11bn takeover of Hutchison Essar, India 's fourth-largest mobile operator, to Vodafone of the UK, Reliance needs to raise its game or risk becoming an also-ran.
Reliance Telecom and Bharti Airtel have entered the second round of qualifying process for a GSM-based mobile license in Qatar that the Gulf country plans to award by October this year.
Anil Ambani group company Reliance Communications on Monday announced entering into an exclusive negotiations with South Africa's telecom giant MTN to discuss potential combination of their businesses.
The company has made payment in compliance with Telecom Department's instructions for self assessment, Mittal said, adding that the Supreme Court had not mentioned specific amounts.
The company has similar pact with Bharti Infratel.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has slapped a penalty of Rs 2,000 crore on Vodafone Idea and Rs 1,050 crore on Bharti Airtel based on sector regulator Trai's recommendation five years ago, according to sources. The DoT has given three weeks time to the telecom operators to pay the penalty, a source said while sharing the content of the demand notice served to the companies on Thursday. When contacted Bharti Airtel spokesperson said, "We are deeply disappointed with the arbitrary and unfair demand based on Trai recommendations of 2016 relating to provisions of point of interconnect to a new operator.
Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 11,374.7 cr while upfront amount due from it was Rs 7,832.20 cr
J M Morgan Stanley and UBS Securities have suggested that Reliance Communication Ventures has surpassed Bharti Airtel in terms of average usage but had lower revenue per subscriber.
The Sensex opened with a positive gap of 61 points at 16,782. It finally ended with a gain of 405 points at 17,126. Bharti Airtel zoomed 9.6% to Rs 925 and RCom soared 8.3% to Rs 577. ICICI Bank surged 4.5%, HDFC and SBI rallied 4% each, Satyam, NTPC and Larsen & Toubro were up over 1% each and ITC, ONGC, R-Energy, Wipro, Tata Steel, BHEL and M&M were other gainers. ACC dropped nearly 2% to Rs 783 while Maruti and DLF were down around 1%.
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