Apex telecom industry body COAI has asserted that spectrum pricing should be kept conducive to market conditions as 5G entails upfront capital investments with monetisation spread over a long-haul, and pricing radiowaves high will only push the players up against the wall. The stage is set for Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to come out with its recommendations on 5G spectrum pricing and other modalities for upcoming auctions, and the announcement from the sector watchdog is expected anytime now. Norms will also be worked out for new frequencies such as 526-698 MHz and millimetre band, that is 24.25 - 28.5 GHz, in addition to bands such as 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300-3670 MHz.
Telecoms investor Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd and retailer Future Group were among the first big names to apply for licenses to run so-called payments banks
A new board has been constituted for the merged entity 'Vodafone Idea Ltd' with 12 directors (including six independent directors) and Kumar Mangalam Birla as its Chairman. The board has appointed Balesh Sharma as the CEO, the companies said in a joint statement. The combination will have an all-India revenue market share of 32.2 per cent and take the numero uno slot in nine telecom circles, it said adding that both Vodafone and Idea brands will continue.
Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 11,374.7 cr while upfront amount due from it was Rs 7,832.20 cr
Two leading mobile operators, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, are understood to have increased pre-paid tariffs by up to 20 per cent, in line with the recent Bharti Airtel move. According to industry sources, the tariffs were increased few days ago.
In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index bucked the trend to gain 0.3%
With Bharti Airtel making it to the list of top-ten advertisers of the year, cellular phone service providers as a category have overthrown fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) products such as toilet soaps and shampoos to emerge as the top advertising category on television in 2007.
Active subscriber base declined by 2.2 million on a month-on-month (MoM) basis to 970.2 million in August 2019, on the back of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea losing customers. Jio was the only operator to add 7.2 million active subscribers in the same month.
Sunil Mittal is confident that Airtel will retain its numero uno position, inspite of Vodafone's competition.
Market worth has risen to half that of Airtel and double that of RCom.
Companies have activated a comprehensive pandemic response plan with requisite risk mitigation protocols for keeping networks working as telecom is an essential service.
A day after mobile charges were hiked by leading operators, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday said consumers should be offered the lowest call rates. "We want consumers to be offered calls at lowest rates," Sibal told PTI.
The company wants to woo post-paid customers and rent out its assets to cut debt.
A recent note based on the audit said telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular had demanded additional spectrum, based on subscriber-linked criteria for meeting the quality parameters of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India before the spectrum auction decision was taken.
In July 2012, TDSAT gave split verdict where one of the bench member ruled in favour and other member ordered against it.
The fall in GSM-based cellular subscribers growth continued with just 979,000 additions in May 2004, at 2.81 crore (28.1 million), with the Bharti Group cornering over one-fourth of the market at 73.43 lakh (7.34 million) customers.
The move comes a few days after billionaire businessman Elon Musk tweeted that his Starlink internet services would be available in India as soon as it gets regulatory approvals next year. Musk's Starlink, which plans to have a constellation of 40,000 low-orbit satellites, recently started offering high-speed internet in the US as part of its beta launch phase.
According to market sources, Airtel has reduced free minutes by 10 to 25 per cent and has increased price of SPVs in the range of Rs 5 to Rs 15.
Bharti Global is planning to put up more satellites and has set a stiff deadline to launch commercial Internet services by October in the UK, Alaska, northern Russia and northern Europe.
The government is likely to get about Rs 24,000 crore from one-time spectrum fee that has been levied on existing operators for holding radiowaves beyond a prescribed limit.
Hutch and Aircel jointly lead the customer expectations ranking, ahead of Reliance, Tatas and Bharti as per the latest survey by TNS Celltrack, while MTNL has the dubious distinction of being the last on this overall list covering 13 circles.
Telcos' m-cap rises Rs 11,286 crore; Bharti, RCom lead.
Its plans, to cut tariffs by 40% or offer more data, comes bundled with 1 GB high speed data for 28 days with unlimited voice thrown in.
Telecom Commission says refarm all spectrum in 900-MHz band to 1,800-MHz band operators.
Companies may face significant spectrum fees from the government.
Need for much more investment; sector would like govt help
The government has approved mergers between telecom companies with a combined market share of 35 per cent and rejected spectrum-sharing among 3G operators while restricting it for 2G operators.
Incumbent operators can retain 2.5-MHz spectrum in 900-MHz band, rest to be refarmed decision final.
The total outstanding dues against Bharti Airtel is Rs 11,235.50 crore.
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.
At present, GSM operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular earn 10-12 per cent of their revenues from the national roaming services, which amount to Rs 10,000-Rs 13,500 crore.
However, the government is readying a relief package and it could include a cut in the licence fee to 5 per cent, two years' moratorium on paying spectrum charges with interest, and referring the GST tax refund issue to the Council.
The joint letter to Manmohan Singh was written by Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla group which has promoted Idea Cellular, and Vittoria Colao, chairman of Vodafone Group Plc.
MobileFirst an alliance of BPL Mobile, Escotel, RPG Cellular and Spice Telecom announced on Saturday new cellular tariff for Plan-399 involving a rate of rupee one for local cell-to-cell outgoing call.\n\n
DoT has stated in an internal note that the 3G roaming agreements between these three companies are tantamount to their becoming mobile virtual network operators, something not allowed under the current policy.
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