Close on the heels of cellular operators announcing the launch of one-paisa-per-second billing scheme for all local/STD calls, roaming services and SMS, MTNL has slashed mobile tariffs to half-a-paisa per second on home network.
Solicitor General of India Goolam Vahanvati has said no further allotment of spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz should be made to telecom operators till the report of the committee on its pricing and allocation is received.If the opinion is acted upon, it would affect companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Aircel, which have applied for extra spectrum in other circles.
GSM operators in the country added 8.97 million users during April 2009 (excluding Reliance Telecom), after recording the highest mobile subscriber addition of 11.2 million last month.
Idea has slashed prices by up to 67% for 3G/4G internet packs for both post- and pre-paid users.
Demand for 1,800-MHz weak but govt secures a combined Rs 42k cr on Day-1
Analysts have pointed out that with the dues arising out of the SC judgment there could soon be only two private telcos in the country, and not three - Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea - as now.
The Department of Telecommunications' Wireless Planning and Coordination arm has moved a note to issue start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz to four leading service providers offering GSM technology, whose applications have been pending from December 2006.
Idea cellular trebled its share in the Mumbai market, albeit on a low base. RCom, for its part added five million (including GSM) subscribers during the month, numbers that have both surprised and confounded the market.
Successful bidders will have to pay 25 per cent of the amount upfront for sub 1 GHz, and 50 per cent upfront for higher frequency bands.
Despite low tariffs, voice usage is not growing.
Country's second largest telecom player Vodafone has launched Rs 5 per day scheme offering free incoming calls, cheaper outgoing calls and SMS rates during national roaming.
GSM operators added 8.89 million subscribers in June, taking the total number of subscribers using the technology to 315.8 million.
Although the industry is disappointed with the government decision not to lower spectrum prices at a time telcos are saddled with over Rs 4-trillion debt and an estimated Rs 1.43-trillion licence fee dues, the DCC has relaxed the payment structure to offer some relief to the financially stressed sector.
The SC had reserved its verdict on a bunch of similar petitions.
Given the escalating cost of doing business, the revenue opportunity is decreasing and consolidation is an inevitable part of the industry.
Spectrum refers to the radio frequencies that enable wireless communication. It has been the source of a bitter dispute between mobile operators of the rival GSM and CDMA technologies. In its petition, Tata Teleservices has also demanded immediate allocation of spectrum that is under the contractual obligation in areas in which it has fulfilled its subscriber base criterion.
The move by three major telecom service providers - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular - to set up a consortium for passive infrastructure is gaining ground, but independent telecom infrastructure providers are yet to be convinced.
The Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission has issued notices to mobile operators Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Hutchison on a complaint over downloading of ring tones.
The Department of Telecommunications has called a meeting of the heads of all leading telecom companies offering GSM technology services on November 21 to resolve contentious issues that have arisen following recent changes in telecom policy.
The case is likely to come up for hearing on Monday.
According to the latest data released by Cellular Operators' Association of India, the total GSM subscriber base rose to 257,85 million, up from 249.35 million in November 2008, a growth of about 3.25 per cent in December.
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).
A total of 41 companies had applied for the permit
The GSM-based mobile operators in the country added 8.3 million subscribers in May taking the total subscriber base to 306.4 million.
Communications Minister A Raja on Monday told Parliament that there was no "contractual agreement" between government and telecom operators to allot spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz, a move that could hurt GSM players like Bharti, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. Raja also ruled out auctioning of spectrum saying this was not feasible based on previous experiences, especially in 1993 when operators were not able to fulfill their roll out obligations.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, India's leading cellular service providers, in collaboration with Research In Motion, on Friday launched the new BlackBerry Pearl 8110 smartphone with built-in global positioning system in the Indian market.
GSM operators (excluding Reliance Telecom) in the country added 6.3 million subscribers in August, taking the total number of users to 225.6 million. In July, the total GSM subscriber base in the country was 219.30 million.
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.
Anil Ambani severely criticised the attitude of GSM operators and raised the issue of returning the extra spectrum again.
Under the UASL norms, spectrum is linked to licences, and a particular band of radio wave is restricted to be used in a particular technology
Taking the government head on, four GSM mobile operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Spice -- have decided to "unitedly" approach the Delhi High Court against telecom tribunal TDSAT's interim order not to stay the spectrum allocation process.
In his letter dated October 19, Anil Ambani points out that while the top three GSM players -- Bharti, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular -- have acquired an additional 52 million subscribers in the past few years without allocation of any additional spectrum, something they have constantly told the government that they do not have sufficiently.
According to figures released by Cellular Operators Association of India today, Bharti Airtel maintained its leadership position with a market share of 31.88 per cent although its net subscriber additions during the month declined marginally at 2.03 million, against 2.06 million in September. The company has a total subscriber base of 50.90 million across the country.
"There is no contractual agreement to give spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz. We are releasing more spectrum based on subscriber base as suggested by telecom regulator Trai," Raja said in the House while replying to a question. Spectrum is radio frequency used for offering wireless telecom services. Currently, spectrum allocation norms, which were revised in August 2007, are being followed while the Teleconm Enginering Centre report is awaited.
The Commission was critical of the fact that the information relating to subscribers, which was confidential and lying with mobile companies, was being passed on to telemarketing agencies without the users' consent.
Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel maintained the top slot with a market share of 32.18 per cent and a total user base of 57.41 million. The company added 2.25 million users in January, up from 2.2 million added in December. COAI did not provide subscriber numbers of Reliance Communications, even though the CDMA major has GSM operations in the country's north-eastern circles.
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.
This equity capital infusion is the country's largest-ever FDI.
Market breadth turned negative with 1,779 declines over 884 advances on the BSE
India's 140 million mobile subscribers make missed calls to convey a pre-agreed message.
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