Revenues of Airtel and Idea have been hit by falling realisation and analysts said margins would be affected by higher costs.
For 2100-MHz, 2300-MHz and 2500-MHz bands across circles; aim to offer these with 3G and 4G in February
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.
Investors brace up ahead of the key macrodata- IIP and CPI numbers due to be unveiled tomorrow.
'We have informed the government multiple times that the situation in the US and India are different.' 'Here, there will be a 500 MHz gap in the frequencies which will safely allow aviation without interference.'
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.
Reliance Jio has accused old operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, of "illegally" masquerading wire-line numbers as mobile numbers for "undue enrichment".
Trai has said the three operators were "intentionally denying and delaying" the provision of points of interconnects (PoIs) to Jio, "only to restrict a new entrant thus violating the terms and conditions of licence and regulations of the Authority which also caused a lot of inconvenience to the consumers."
Reliance Jio submitted the highest pre-auction deposit.
India's largest-ever spectrum auction kicked off on Saturday with major telecom operators placing bids worth Rs 53,531 crore across bands, even as the premium 700 Mhz and 900 Mhz frequencies did not find any buyer.
DoT committee rejects most Trai suggestions for freeing airwaves for sale.
In effect, companies which put their money in telecom in India would have done much better to keep the cash in bank and earn interest.
Jio has accused incumbent telecom operators for not providing the required number of equipment to connect its mobile network with theirs
RCom may get around Rs 4,500 crore by trading its radiowaves to Reliance Jio.
DoT had raised the demand on December 22 and asked RCom to pay within a month.
The telecom industry is moving towards a five-plus one model.
The Mukesh Ambani-owned company had complained to Trai about incumbents offering segmented offers to different customers
The freebies are now over, but Jio will need to notch up subscriber numbers and margins to prove its sceptics wrong.
Revenue decline has left the operators with little money to service their mostly 3G and partly 4G infrastructure leading to poor data and voice quality.
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.
Broader market underperformed the headline indices
Jio makes data on call drops public, says 121 mn calls failed in a day
Says, Jio unlikely to gain 2% revenue market share in 2017
Reliance Jio Infocomm has announced that it would launch commercial 4G services in 6 to 8 weeks.
Telecom tower companies likely to invest around Rs 500 crore (Rs 50 billion) to enhance network.
This is the first time airwaves in 700 Mhz band will be put up for auction
Falling revenues, increased capex, and first full year of spectrum debt may make things worse
At the moment, data and broadband is small for BSNL: it contributes 10 per cent of the company's revenue, though its share is on the rise.
A rare bonhomie among three private telecom companies in raising tariffs coming on the back of a bailout package by the government may have helped the telecom sector avert a crisis but the challenges haven't ceased to exist as the industry faces a cash-guzzling task of rolling out 5G networks in the coming months. The sector that provides direct and indirect employment to millions is projected to see Rs 1.3 lakh crore to Rs 2.3 lakh crore of investments in the coming years in creating robust infrastructure and building telecom and network products that have been incentivised by the government through PLI and other initiatives. After years of cut-throat competition and the apex court ruling on payment of past statutory dues left some players in the lurch, billionaire Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel and struggling Vodafone Idea almost in tandem raised tariffs, taking the plunge they had long been talking about.
Mittal said that overall, he expected that by March 2018, the "dust will settle down" for the entire industry.
Sachin Bansal, who had co-founded Flipkart with Binny Bansal in 2007, would exit the company
Telecom industry body COAI has approached the information technology ministry for removal of fake and misleading messages from social media platforms like Facebook, Whatsapp and Twitter linking spread of COVID-19 to 5G technology. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), whose members include Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, said the claims linking 5G with coronavirus are baseless as 5G networks have not yet been installed in the country and even 5G trials are yet to be started by the telecom operators. In a letter dated May 15 to MeitY additional secretary Rajendra Kumar, COAI director general S P Kochhar said: "To safeguard the national interest, we request your good office to kindly instruct all the social media platforms such as Facebook, Watsapp, Twitter, etc, to remove all such posts and misleading campaigns from their platforms on an urgent basis." People have been sharing audio and video messages on social media platforms in which 5G towers are being blamed for rise in casualties across the country even though none of the companies have installed 5G technology anywhere in India.
The recent Indian telecom spectrum auction will hasten industry consolidation, strengthen tariffs and reduce regulatory risks.
The DoT report is expected by the end of the month.
Battleground shifts to rural and small towns, where user base aspires to upgrade to smartphones.
Telcos have indicated that rates will have to be raised, as higher volumes alone will not suffice to meet the higher costs.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, on October 15, gave its recommendation on spectrum auction for premium 900 Mhz band and 1800 Mhz band that are presently being used for 2G GSM mobile services by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications.
Anil Ambani severely criticised the attitude of GSM operators and raised the issue of returning the extra spectrum again.
The incumbent operators faced the onslaught of free offers and cheaper rates from Jio.
The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has bluntly told the government there is no reason for its members to roll out 5G networks as they will be unviable if 'captive private wireless networks' are allowed to be run by enterprises. The COAI, which has Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea as its key members, has written to Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw saying there is 'no business case for the roll out of 5G networks'. Permitting such captive networks will 'diminish the revenue so much that there will be no viable business case left for the telecom service providers and there will not remain any need for 5G network roll out by telecom service providers (TSPs)'.
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