SC directs CBI to take action over extra spectrum allocation during NDA rule.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini adjourned Monday's proceedings in the wake of stay granted by the Supreme Court on separate pleas filed by Mittal and Ruia challenging the March 19 order of the trial court summoning them as accused in the case.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher, referring to a Supreme Court order on a plea of Bharti Cellular Ltd in a similar case, asked the Department of Telecommunications not to take any coercive steps in pursuance of its notices issued to the telecom companies asking them to stop providing 3G services to mobile users in the circles for which they lacked licences.
Without assigning any reason, Justice Dave, who was part of the bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir, opted out of hearing the pleas of Mittal and Ruia challenging the summons issued to them in the case.
On Thursday, the SC will resume hearing on Mittal's plea challenging the court's summons.
Special CBI Judge O P Saini adjourned today's proceedings after advocate Siddharth Agarwal, appearing for Mittal, said the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear in March the separate pleas filed by Mittal and Ruia challenging the March 19, 2013 order of the trial court summoning them as accused in the case.
The income tax department has moved the Supreme Court stating that private telecom service providers are liable to deduct tax at source for the payments made to state-owned BSNL and MTNL for inter-connectivity.
The apex court had on December 4 last year, reserved the verdict after hearing counsel for corporate honchos and the Central Bureau of Investigation.
Telecom regulator Trai has initiated action against cellular operators including Bharti, Idea and Hutchison for defying its order on selective blocking of calls originating and terminating in some basic service operators' networks.
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.
India's largest cellular services provider Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd's customer base in Delhi has touched one million, an industry official said on Monday.
Sunil Mittal promoted Bharti Group garnered the largest subscriber base of 37.50 lakh (3.75 million), followed by BSNL and Hutchison Group.\n
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
Bharti Airtel, India's largest private cellular operator, on Thursday announced an investment of over $2 billion (Rs 9,000 crore) in 2007-08 to expand network.
A total of 41 companies had applied for the permit
Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti group on Friday announced it would buy 27.5 per cent stake of Telesystem International Wireless of Canada in Hexacom, a cellular telecom operator in Rajasthan.
Market concentration in the country's telecom sector continues to scale new heights despite government bailouts of public-sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL), and private-sector Vodafone Idea. The combined revenue (or net sales) share of the country's top two telecom operators - Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio - in the sector's total reached an all-time high of nearly 72 per cent in FY23 from 70.4 per cent in FY22 and around 60 per cent in FY20. The net sales of Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel India were Rs 1.67 trillion in FY23, up 18.6 per cent from the Rs 1.4 trillion a year earlier.
Spectrum auction ends, brings Rs 1.09 tln to govt kitty.
Bharti Airtel operates in 20 countries across Asia and Africa and is the world's fourth-biggest cellular carrier by customers
Telecom Consultant India Ltd has decided not to pick up 67.5 per cent stake in Rajasthan cellular operator Hexacom, thereby setting the stage for Bharti to acquire majority equity from Shyam Group.
New Delhi is also set to top its target of raising at least $13 billion.
The launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd last September, particularly the tariff war it has unleashed on its competitors, has deepened the crisis facing India's telecom sector. One offshoot of this is the major drop in earnings reported by industry leaders Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular with each passing quarter. Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com tells the story in numbers.
The entry of the deep-pocketed conglomerate is expected to heighten competition.
Amid an existential crisis facing the firm over Rs 50,000 crore unpaid dues towards the government, billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla on Wednesday stepped down as the chairman of Vodafone Idea Ltd. Birla -- who had in June offered to give away his holding in the joint venture with Britain's Vodafone to the government -- will cease to be a director and non-executive chairman of the company at the end of business hours on Wednesday, VIL said in a filing to the stock exchanges. It did not give any reason for Birla's decision. He will be replaced by Himanshu Kapania (who was earlier managing director and CEO of Birla's Idea Cellular) as the new chairman of Vodafone Idea Ltd.
As per the latest data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Vodafone Idea -- born last year from the merger of older operators Vodafone India and Idea Cellular -- continues to be the largest operator with 38.75 crore consumers and 33.36 per cent market share in the wireless segment as on May 31, 2019.
Operators Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Aircel, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd and Idea Cellular might have to fork out over Rs 11,200 crore for having spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz, if the government accepts the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) recommendations.
The judge summoned Birla as one of the accused in the case.
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.
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.
With the new entity coming in force, Bharti Airtel will lose the tag of India's biggest telecom service provider to the new entity.
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.
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.
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