While the draft M&A policy for the telecom sector has been revised a few times over the past few months, DoT has not made any major changes to guidelines.
Industry experts say there will be problems, as power supply is a concern for providing uninterrupted service
A crown of thorns awaits the next telecom minister at Sanchar Bhawan as the new incumbent will have to address a host of tricky issues like industry infighting, tariffs and improving financial health of the Rs 2.3 lakh crore industry.
Its says reconsider lower reserve price, uniform usage charges; GSM players to bear the brunt.
In Bangladesh, a call drop has more to do with network quality, while in India it is linked to spectrum shortage.
Telcos say tests were done in the known problematic areas of Delhi-NCR, where operators face issues in obtaining cell sites.
The freebies are now over, but Jio will need to notch up subscriber numbers and margins to prove its sceptics wrong.
Seeks clarification on a few issues such as enhancement of entry fee and performance bank guarantee from telecom regulator
A whopping Rs 62,476 crore has been "illegally" transferred by smartphone maker Vivo to China in order to avoid payment of taxes in India, the Enforcement Directorate said Thursday, as it claimed to have busted a major money laundering racket involving Chinese nationals and multiple Indian companies. This money is almost half of Vivo's turnover of Rs 1,25,185 crore, it said without stating the time period of the transaction. The crackdown on the leading Chinese company came after the federal probe agency found that three Chinese nationals, all of whom "left" India during 2018-21, and one other person from that country incorporated as many as 23 companies in India in which they were also helped by a Chartered Accountant, Nitin Garg.
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.
Apple's three vendors in the country have hit the milestone of creating 30,000 new direct jobs since the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for mobile devices kicked off in April 2021. Based on the government's estimate that one direct job in the electronics industry helps to generate three indirect ones, Apple's vendors, Foxconn Hon Hai, Wistron and Pegatron, are close to creating 100,000 direct and indirect jobs. The direct jobs that the vendors have created account for a fourth of Apple's commitment to generate 60 per cent of the new direct jobs out of the 200,000 jobs targeted by the government under the PLI scheme within five years.
How dominant are Chinese firms in India's sub-Rs 10,000 mobile device market? The question has become relevant as the government has been thinking of reserving this price segment for domestic players who have not been able to battle the Chinese onslaught. However, telecom firms and others are concerned that such a move could stymie the effort to build affordable 5G phones in the sub-Rs 10,000 category.
Their favourite alternatives: Malaysia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Note, India is missing from that list. And this is despite an attractive financial incentive scheme for OSAT players. The reason, said a senior executive of a US chip company who had a meeting in Taiwan just a few weeks ago, is that "they want more predictability in government policy because they plan to put in big money."
DoT plans to initiate move that might lower the revenues telcos share with government.
The telephone subscriber base was 996.49 million at the end of March.
In its letter Voda Idea has warned that it is not in a sound financial state, and added that it would be in a position to meet its liabilities only if the government initiates steps including allowing set-offs for GST credit accumulated so far, and permitting staggered mechanism for payment of balance amount of interest, penalty, and interest on penalty.
Former Telecom Minister A Raja on Tuesday told a Delhi court that former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Cabinet members were "completely under confusion" created by "vested interests" about policy and procedure of Department of Telecommunication in allocating the 2G spectrum.
A presentation by the CBI to a Joint Parliamentary Committee last week said the decision led to a loss of Rs 508 crore to the exchequer.
The 21-day coronavirus lockdown in force since Wednesday has triggered a mass exodus of migrant workers across the country since the last few days.
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%
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.
The Aadhaar-enabled payment system, or AEPS, allows consumers who don't have smartphones or debit cards to perform basic banking transactions like cash deposit, cash withdrawal, intrabank or interbank fund transfer, balance enquiry and obtaining a mini statement through biometric authentication at micro-ATMs.
They are cheaper to build, costing around Rs 10 lakh each as against Rs 20-25 lakh for a traditional ground-based tower and even less than the Rs 12-15 lakh needed for a tower mounted on a roof top.
Telecom companies have been desperately waiting for a bailout package from the government after a Supreme Court order put their statutory liabilities at Rs 1.47 lakh crore.
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.
Income will be higher as spectrum in 2,100-MHz band will also be auctioned
In a communication to the empowered committee on PLI recently, the Indian Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA) has stated that except one player (Samsung), all the other eight players (which include vendors of Apple Inc) selected under the scheme were facing numerous challenges in fulfilling the qualification criteria.
Birla group firm Idea Cellular Ltd and Modis-owned Spice Telecom on Friday dared the government to allocate spectrum to those mobile operators who submitted applications after them.
If Reliance Jio resets the rules of the game with low voice and data tariffs, most incumbents will find themselves back to square one.
Lt Governor says discoms must cooperate or face cancellation of licences. Ficci cries interference.
The India Meteorological Department on Tuesday said the monsoon this year is expected to be 'above normal.'
The big beneficiaries of this move will be the big three -- Bharti, Vodafone and Idea.
They can carry huge amounts of data, have a lot of bandwidth, but operate at short ranges, between 200 metres and 2-3 km reports Surajeet Das Gupta
As much as Rs 8,000 crore worth of mobile phones in this segment - out of a total of Rs 15,000 crore - come into the country through the grey market. The government imposed the duty on these phones primarily to encourage domestic production but the strategy has failed as the bulk of high end mobile phones are currently imported.
'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.'
Dr Mishra further explained the effect of hybrid immunity on the vaccinated population and said that it is likely to give protection to people along with the Indian vaccines administered.
A team led by Kolkata-born scientists has discovered a special sweet spot in the eye plays a crucial role in humans being able to to focus on computer screens and also read, an ability which is unique to Homo sapiens.
A Dubai trip plus Apple iPhone 12 is cheaper than buying the phone in India. Various models of the iPhone 12 Pro and Max are cheaper in Dubai by up to Rs 35,000 owing to higher GST, Customs duty in India.
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