Jio is in a neck and neck battle with Airtel, which added a similar number of subscribers as Jio in the 15 months from February 2017 to April 2018
Telenor Financial Services, IDFC Bank and Sun Pharma's Dilip Shanghvi have decided to withdraw their licence to set up a payments bank.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
The interconnection charge has been reduced.
For 2100-MHz, 2300-MHz and 2500-MHz bands across circles; aim to offer these with 3G and 4G in February
India's telecom sector has been through dizzying peaks, troughs, policy U-turns, court battles, brutal competition, and daily controversies. India could go back to a private sector duopoly with just Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel surviving the mayhem. The third player, Vodafone Idea, could be history.
Raises cap of market share for merged entity to 50%, spectrum trading allowed, with riders.
Nivedita Mookerji explains why a timely rollout of 5G may not be easy in India.
Spectrum auction ends, brings Rs 1.09 tln to govt kitty.
The government has given an option to telcos to pay back interest on dues through equity and also conveyed that it has no interest in acquiring any telecom company, a top official of debt-ridden Vodafone Idea has said. Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) managing director and CEO Ravinder Takkar in an interview to PTI said it is clear that the government wants the company to compete in the market and there should be at least three private service providers in the telecom sector. "I have had many many interactions across various parts of the government leading up to this announcement (telecom reforms).
Given the escalating cost of doing business, the revenue opportunity is decreasing and consolidation is an inevitable part of the industry.
Analysts at rating agency ICRA say the debt level of the telecom companies is very high and the ecosystem for the premium band is not in place.
It came as a surprise to all stakeholders - competing telecom companies (telcos), most analysts and even the government's internal projections on revenues from the 5G auctions. Reliance Jio disrupted all calculations by paying a stiff Rs 40,000 crore to buy 10 MHz of spectrum in the 700-MHz band, globally considered a key band for efficient 5G service coverage, along with the default 3.5 GHz band and the ultra-high speed and low-latency millimetre band of 26 GHz band. So what made Jio pay almost 45 per cent of its total spend in this auction for the 700 MHz band - much more than what it rustled up even for the 3.5 GHz band?
Vodafone Idea, which reported a loss of Rs 6,439 crore in the December quarter, said it had received letters from the department of telecommunications (DoT) directing immediate payment of dues amounting to Rs 54,000 crores after the SC judgment. "The company is currently assessing the amount that it will be able to pay to DoT towards the dues calculated based on AGR, as interpreted by the Supreme Court in its order dated October 24, 2019. The company proposes to pay the amount so assessed in the next few days," it stated.
Reliance Jio Infocomm, expected to start commercial operations in the Indian telecom space in the next few months, had a net worth of Rs 5,026.16 crore, the company said in a statement submitted to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Monday.
Telecom operators owe government a huge amount of Rs 17,980.77 crore in licence fee and spectrum charges, but the outstandings are under litigations, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
The CAG report, tabled in Parliament, states the interest on the short payment stood at Rs 1,052.13 crore for the period up to March 2016.
Jio to charge users 6 paisa/min for voice calls made to rival phone networks. However, these charges are not applicable on calls made by Jio users to other Jio phones and to landline phones and calls made using WhatsApp, FaceTime and other such platforms.
DoT committee rejects most Trai suggestions for freeing airwaves for sale.
'We have informed the government multiple times that the situation in the US and India are different.' 'Here, there will be a 500 MHz gap in the frequencies which will safely allow aviation without interference.'
The big advantage that Jio is able to garner currently is its low cost of operations.
In effect, companies which put their money in telecom in India would have done much better to keep the cash in bank and earn interest.
Kumar Mangalam Birla will be the non-executive chairman and Balesh Sharma the new CEO of the merged entity, which will remain listed.
Companies might have to shell out a fourth of the industry's annual net revenue to clear the obligation
The move comes against the backdrop of the US and some of its allies banning the purchase of Chinese telecom gear over security concerns and pressuring other countries to follow suit.
Funds will be raised via non-cumulative preference shares issued to Tata Sons on rights basis
The development marks a watershed moment in India's telecom history since fixed-line or landline connections formed the final segment where a State-owned operator was in the top spot.
India's largest-ever spectrum auction kicked off on Saturday with major telecom operators placing bids worth Rs 53,531 crore across bands, even as the premium 700 Mhz and 900 Mhz frequencies did not find any buyer.
Telecom industry body COAI has approached the information technology ministry for removal of fake and misleading messages from social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter linking spread of COVID-19 to 5G technology. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, said the claims linking 5G with coronavirus are baseless as 5G networks have not yet been installed in the country and even 5G trials are yet to be started by the telecom operators. In a letter dated May 15 to MeitY additional secretary Rajendra Kumar, COAI director general S P Kochhar said: "To safeguard the national interest, we request your good office to kindly instruct all the social media platforms such as Facebook, Watsapp, Twitter, etc, to remove all such posts and misleading campaigns from their platforms on an urgent basis." People have been sharing audio and video messages on social media platforms in which 5G towers are being blamed for rise in casualties across the country even though none of the companies have installed 5G technology anywhere in India.
New Delhi is also set to top its target of raising at least $13 billion.
Telecom infrastructure player Indus Towers has been largely ignored by investors with occasional bursts of trading when there's news flow. For example, the stock fell from Rs 188 (Jan 1, 2023) to Rs 135 (Jan 27) and then bounced back to Rs 165 in early February as the Government of India (GoI) converted Vodafone Idea's (Vi) debt into equity and Bharti Airtel pushed up its direct stake in Indus to 47.95 per cent. The cash-strapped Vi holds 21 per cent stake in Indus Towers and Indus also has substantial receivables to come in from Vi which is a negative overhang.
Sensex ended above 26,000 led by telecom shares amid TRAI's spectrum sharing norms.
Telecom regulator TRAI has imposed cumulative penalty of Rs 50 lakh on nine mobile operators for failing to meet quality of service benchmarks in the second quarter ended June 2013, official sources said.
The amount generated so far is about 86 per cent of what the 3G auction fetched in 2010.
Battleground shifts to rural and small towns, where user base aspires to upgrade to smartphones.
Tata Group had hinted at combining its enterprise business with Tata Communications and its fixed-line and broadband businesses with Tata Sky.
Companies have activated a comprehensive pandemic response plan with requisite risk mitigation protocols for keeping networks working as telecom is an essential service.
'Is it advisable to have more number of scrips in small quantities or a few scrips in big quantities?'
As per data, call drop situation in Delhi has improved.
'We are targeting the 5G tender around January-March 2023.'
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances