To outgoing Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao, negotiating big deals was an art form, as an international report pointed out after the $130-billion sale of Vodafone's 45 per cent stake in Verizon Wireless, says Nivedita Mookerji.
While UltraTech Cement has been the biggest value creator adding nearly Rs 99,000 crore to its market capitalisation, Grasim Industries has added around Rs 27,000 crore to its market cap.
The auction is the biggest ever sale of 2G and 3G airwaves.
Two leading mobile operators, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular, are understood to have increased pre-paid tariffs by up to 20 per cent, in line with the recent Bharti Airtel move. According to industry sources, the tariffs were increased few days ago.
Members of COAI, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Idea Cellular and others met in New Delhi and decided to go ahead with filing of the affidavit in TDSAT against the Telecom Engineering Centre's report. COAI has also questioned the government's move to allocate spectrum to two telecom PSUs -- BSNL and MTNL -- saying they have been given frequency out of turn as many other players have been waiting to get spectrum for months and even years now.
In the broader market, the BSE Midcap index bucked the trend to gain 0.3%
According to a study, the change in frequency for transmitting mobile signals could cost the telcos over Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion) cumulatively.
New telecom operators who have been given licences to operate pan-India GSM mobile services are all set to fight a bitter battle with the established GSM players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
Bharti Airtel Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal, Vodafone Plc CEO Vittorio Colao, Telenor CEO Jon Fredrik Baksaas and Idea Cellular Chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla on Wednesday met ministers and senior government officials to present the industry's concerns over telecom regulator Trai's proposals on the auction of spectrum.
A day after mobile charges were hiked by leading operators, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday said consumers should be offered the lowest call rates. "We want consumers to be offered calls at lowest rates," Sibal told PTI.
In the November auction of second-generation telecom spectrum, Bihar was the only circle to cross the base price
Under another plan, it will offer unlimited voice calling along with 100 SMS per day, 5GB 3G/4G data and free subscription to Wynk Music and Wynk Movies for Rs 1,599
Reliance Jio saw fall in speeds from 7.2 mbps in September to 6 mbps in October, according to CLSA report.
Bharti Airtel has sought quashing of the government's September 28 decision directing the service providers to stop providing intra-circle roaming services.
The company wants to woo post-paid customers and rent out its assets to cut debt.
Now, it cannot offer 3G services in pact with other telcos.
Firms to pay Rs 24,700 cr if spectrum formula is accepted.
The government is likely to get about Rs 24,000 crore from one-time spectrum fee that has been levied on existing operators for holding radiowaves beyond a prescribed limit.
The telecom regulator had suggested imposition of a price on operators for holding spectrum beyond the contracted limit of 6.2MHz.
The government has approved mergers between telecom companies with a combined market share of 35 per cent and rejected spectrum-sharing among 3G operators while restricting it for 2G operators.
Telecom Commission says refarm all spectrum in 900-MHz band to 1,800-MHz band operators.
The joint letter to Manmohan Singh was written by Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Airtel, Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of the Aditya Birla group which has promoted Idea Cellular, and Vittoria Colao, chairman of Vodafone Group Plc.
DoT has stated in an internal note that the 3G roaming agreements between these three companies are tantamount to their becoming mobile virtual network operators, something not allowed under the current policy.
Historically, public sector units were conceived of under the assumption that they will control the 'commanding heights' of the Indian economy, which were necessary for rapid industrial growth but where private investment was unwilling to enter.
Mobile tariffs are currently under forbearance, which means these are determined by market forces.
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.
Telco moves Delhi High Court against order; Vodafone expected to get notice too
The government on Tuesday invited financial bids from all the nine applicants, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices and RCom, who had applied for participating in 3G spectrum auction.
On February 2, the court had ordered the cancellation of 122 licences issued in January 2008 under then telecom minister, A Raja, and directed the government to conduct the auction of vacated 2G spectrum in four months.
Reliance Communications has accused "old 2G operators" of causing over Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion) in losses to the exchequer through "fraudulent means".
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have demanded allocation of a part of CDMA spectrum in 800 Mhz band for GSM services.
Incumbent operators can retain 2.5-MHz spectrum in 900-MHz band, rest to be refarmed decision final.
Says Airtel-Vodafone-Idea pacts violate licence terms; firms may move TDSAT.
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.
At present, GSM operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular earn 10-12 per cent of their revenues from the national roaming services, which amount to Rs 10,000-Rs 13,500 crore.
Telecom major Bharti Group Chairman and Managing Director Sunil Bharti Mittal denied any attempt on forming a cartel with other telecom players to distort competition. Bharti Airtel had received a 'notice of enquiry' by anti- monopoly watchdog MRTPC. Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular too had received such notices. It was alleged that 3 GSM operators, by colluding, have simultaneously increased the price. Mittal said that MVNOs will not work in India due to existing tariffs.
Vodafone, Airtel, Idea provide services without spectrum.
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.
The DoT is conducting a special audit on companies that have multiple licences -- mobile, international long distance, domestic long distance and internet service provider among others. Contractor, Nayak & Kishnadwala has been appointed to examine the books of Bharti Airtel, while S K Mehta & Co will check Vodafone-Essar's accounts. Varma & Varma has been appointed as auditors for Tata Teleservices, while Chhajed & Doshi will examine the books of Idea Cellular.
It wants subscribers who are 'active' on its network.
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