Move comes in view of big debt overhang in two sectors; companies unwilling.
Customers may lose freebies or have to pay a little more for mobile services in the days ahead as operators try to make up for Rs 61,100 crore they have committed to government in the latest spectrum auction.
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.
Airtel, Vodafone, BSNL increase subscriber share while Idea manages to retain
If it happens, this would mean the largest spectrum auction in terms of amount with over 7,000 Mhz going up for sale across eight bands
'The huge amount of investments being made by telcos in India for telecom gear, there is no way this demand could be met only by Europeans.' 'The Chinese are quick in installation and offer great value for money.'
Chinese telcos hold 60-100 MHz of spectrum, while Indian companies hold 13-15 MHz of spectrum.
While moving towards the new technology is compelling and inevitable, powering 5G would also mean massive initial investments for telcos, says Surajeet Das Gupta.
Sibal said that Trai had compared India with China.
Companies might have to shell out a fourth of the industry's annual net revenue to clear the obligation
The fear of another scam pushed the government into a rather long period of so-called 'policy paralysis'. To play it safe, the price of spectrum in all subsequent auctions was benchmarked to the high 3G rates, says Surajeet Das Gupta.
This is the first time airwaves in 700 Mhz band will be put up for auction
Telecom operators have to take double confirmation from consumers before activating value added services (VAS) and must complete de-activation requests in four hours, sectoral regulator Trai said.
Seeks clarification on a few issues such as enhancement of entry fee and performance bank guarantee from telecom regulator
The government has suffered a loss of Rs 12,488.93 crore (Rs 124.88 billion) due to under-invoicing of gross revenue by six telecom companies including Reliance Communications, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, the CAG said in a damning report on Friday.
DoT plans to initiate move that might lower the revenues telcos share with government.
Telecom Commission approves high base price of Rs 11,485 cr per Mhz for 700-Mhz frequency; no decision taken on proposed standard spectrum usage charges of 4.5%
Its pre-consultation paper has been silent on the issue of closed electronic communication network, a loophole telcos can exploit to offer discriminatory pricing.
Telecom Secretary J S Deepak has resolved the toughest issues facing the sector, but his real test will be in delivering on the govt's Digital India dream
Lt Governor says discoms must cooperate or face cancellation of licences. Ficci cries interference.
'Where will the next 200 million users that will come online in India prefer to go? Will they buy a data pack, or will they use the free Internet?' 'What will happen when most of the Internet in India is inside a walled garden?'
Transcript of Nikhil Pahwa's chat with Rediff readers.
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