The race for acquiring India's third largest mobile services provider Hutch, has hotted up with Reliance Communications backed by an US equity funder
Arun Sarin is the chief executive officer of Vodafone Group Plc, the United Kingdom-based global mobile operator.
High-end mobile device Blackberry, which was till now available only with the GSM operators, will be soon launched on CDMA platform by Reliance Communications.
The telecom regulator had suggested imposition of a price on operators for holding spectrum beyond the contracted limit of 6.2MHz.
Mobile tariffs are currently under forbearance, which means these are determined by market forces.
After the $11.1 billion winning bid by Vodafone for Hutchison, the spotlight now shifts to the Ruia-owned BPL Mobile Communications.
Nine million subscribers opt for mobile number portability in first three months of its launch.
The GSM operators decided to withdraw their plea when the TDSAT was about to reserve its order on the maintainability of the petition after hearing the case for more than one-and-a-half hours.
A Bench headed by Justice Altamas Kabir sought an reply from 11 repondents Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone Essar Mobile Services, Cellular Operators Association of India, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, BPL Mobile Communications, HFCL Infotel, and Spice Communications -- as to why they should not pay ADC to BSNL.
Disruption of work, levy to insurgents, targeting of communications and security concerns stall development.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday submitted its bid for 3G spectrum, auction for which starts from April 9.
The government will start allotting third generation (3G) spectrum from Wednesday to successful bidders, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar, among others. A senior DoT official, said the allotment of 3G spectrum will start on Wednesday.
Airtel, Vodafone-Essar favour delinking; Reliance, Tata oppose.
India's biggest firm, Reliance Industries, has decided to cut salaries by 10 per cent in its oil and refining divisions. Several smaller companies like Kajaria Ceramics have followed suit with cuts as high as 40 per cent for those earning more than Rs 50 lakh.
The telecom industry has come out in support of new Communication and IT Minister Kapil Sibal for his observation that the sector should not be viewed as source of revenue for the Finance Ministry.
After a long wait, Tata Teleservices on Thursday launched the premium Blackberry mobile services that offers customers e-mail, SMS messaging and Internet-based applications.
During a hearing before the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) last month Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, and government-run BSNL and MTNL agreed to submit the undertaking.
The government has ruled out banning Blackberry services in India. This was stated by the telecom secretary in New Delhi on Friday.Security agencies had said that they should have access to data that are being encrypted by services like BlackBerry on mobile phones and then decrypted when the phone reaches its destination. The government had cited security concerns as it could not monitor the content on RIM's servers, which were located in Canada and other foreign locations.
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.
Netcore offers the service 'MyToday' to 3.8 million mobile phone users in the country. Jain was the founder of IndiaWorld Communications, a small start-up, which was acquired in 1999 by IT major Sify Technologies for around Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion).
Though the controversy over the security of BlackBerry services is yet to be resolved, the four operators that offer these services - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BPL Mobile and Reliance Communications - have added over 50,000 customers in the four months since the problems began. Before this, the push-mail service, which was introduced in India in October 2004, had 400,000 subscribers according to industry estimates.
The companies are looking at tapping solar power, wind energy and bio-fuels, including fish and vegetable oil, to run base transceiver systems in areas with poor power supply.
This follows the expiry of its brand-use agreement with the BPL Group. The company, which faces an ownership battle between the Ruias of the Essar Group and the UK-based Vodafone, does not expect 'any issues' to arise from the change. "Loop is an extension of an ongoing campaign, Get in the Loop, and it will be easy for our subscribers to identify with this new brand name," said BPL Mobile Director and CEO Sanjeev Chachondia.
In a first of its kind initiative and available only in Kolkata, mobile services provider Vodafone Essar, has launched the 'Sambhav' prepaid card, targeted at customers with hearing and speech disability.Available at Rs 151, the prepaid Sambhav card will enable the hearing impaired to communicate effectively using a cellphone. The card enables customers with hearing and speech disability to use mobile phones primarily for sending SMSes.
The Department of Telecommunications has received 21 bids from telecom operators and infrastructure service providers for the Rs 2,395 crore (Rs 23.95 billion) rural telephony project.
However, Misra added that Vodafone will need to follow this transition up with a highly visible multimedia campaign in the initial two months. "This will instill confidence among consumers that their brand is in the right hands," he said.
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.
The department of telecommunications is planning to seek details from four operators - Bharti-Airtel, Hutchison-Essar, Tata Teleservices Ltd and Reliance Communications - on the fulfillment of rollout obligations under the mobile telephony licence.
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.
The petroleum ministry has rapped Reliance Industries for failing to meet its obligations of opening and operating 10 per cent of its petrol and diesel retail outlets in remote and low-service areas.
Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications has entered into an agreement with GSM service providers Hutchison-Essar and the Aditya Birla-controlled Idea Cellular to share passive infrastructure for cell sites.
What's happening in the telecom sector are classic bullying tactics - do the wrong thing, threaten to do worse, get the threatened party to sue for peace, and walk away smelling of roses after a "compromise".
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company Reliance Communications, which is in the process of bidding for Hutch-Essar, is planning to list its undersea cable business unit Flag Telecom in London to raise over $500 million.
Reliance Communications, which is eyeing to acquire the country's fourth-largest mobile firm Hutch Essar, said on Wednesday it plans to raise funds through issue of securities in the international market.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Siemens has inked an agreement with Hutchison Essar for its music download technology Music2You. the latter will enable full-length songs to be previewed and downloaded on its handsets.
Reliance Communications has sought government approval for sponsoring a secondary Global Depository Receipts offering of up to $1.2 billion, representing 6.53 per cent of the total paid-up equity shares of the company.
Hutchison has made it clear to prospective bidders that it can sell its 67 per cent stake in Hutchison Essar without offering the first right of refusal to the Ruias who hold the remaining 33 per cent in the joint venture.
