It may be the season for corporate matchmaking but India Inc's record of managing partnerships is far from impressive, says Shailesh Dobhal.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
Vodafone Idea, the country's third largest telecom operator, on Wednesday reported a staggering Rs 73,878 crore of net loss in fiscal ended March 2020 -- the highest ever by any Indian firm -- after it provisioned for Supreme Court-mandated statutory dues. The firm, which has to pay Rs 51,400 crore dues after the apex court ordered the non-telecom revenues to be included in calculating statutory dues, said the liability has "cast significant doubt on the company's ability to continue as a going concern".
"If we are not getting anything then I think it is end of story for Vodafone Idea," Kumar Mangalam Birla said at the HT Leadership Summit when asked about the future of Vodafone Idea in absence of a government relief on payment of Rs 53,038 crore dues.
The SC had reserved its verdict on a bunch of similar petitions.
India's largest telecom operator in terms of subscriber numbers has been struggling to raise its share of subscribers in the market for fourth-generation technology services.
Sachin Bansal, who had co-founded Flipkart with Binny Bansal in 2007, would exit the company
Excise duties on mobile phones to be 1% without CENVAT credit or 6% with CENVAT credit. This provision will have marginal impact on telcos.
Active subscriber base declined by 2.2 million on a month-on-month (MoM) basis to 970.2 million in August 2019, on the back of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea losing customers. Jio was the only operator to add 7.2 million active subscribers in the same month.
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."
The total number of telephone connections in the country crossed the record one billion mark in May, bolstered by growth in number of mobile users.
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.
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.
Idea has slashed prices by up to 67% for 3G/4G internet packs for both post- and pre-paid users.
The government has allocated spectrum to Vodafone in all 14 service areas, where the telecom major won in November 2012 auction for Rs 1,127.94 crore (Rs 11,27 billion).
Telecom major Bharti Airtel led the growth in segment with net addition of 1.31 million subscribers.
Top three mobile operators spend $13.6 bln in auction
The company has increased the cost of 1 GB of 3G internet usage to Rs 156 from Rs 123 it charged earlier.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has given its recommendations on the much-awaited issue of spectrum sharing.
Vodafone Idea, the promoter of Aditya Bira Idea Payments Bank, said in a notification to the exchanges late on Friday that the board of the bank approved winding up the business, subject to approval from the Reserve Bank of India.
The company at present provides monthly mobile services at starting price of Rs 24 without data, and plans with data service starts from Rs 33 onward. It did not disclose the quantum of hike.
The consolidated revenue increased 20 per cent to Rs 8,422 cr
However, the number of transactions declined to 76 in January-March this year from 110 in the year-ago quarter.
Under the UASL norms, spectrum is linked to licences, and a particular band of radio wave is restricted to be used in a particular technology
Jio had launched the inaugural free voice and data plan in September last year, and in December, extended the freebies till March 31, 2017
This merger, Bhupesh Bhandari believes, will be watched keenly by management gurus the world over.
While it was technically not possible to block the deal, the tax department could resort to arm-twisting.
RCom and Tata Teleservices are the top net losers of subscribers under mobile number portability (MNP) services.
A Vodafone Group insider with more than 25 years in the telco across geographies, he's like the eyes and ears of the multinational in India.
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telcom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) have opposed the proposal to compensate consumers.
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At the close of trade, telecom stocks ended with as much as 4.3 per cent loss.
Joining the bandwagon of companies slashing mobile Internet tariffs, telecom operator Tata Docomo on Tuesday announced a cut in its 2G and 3G mobile Internet rates by a whopping 90 per cent from 10 paise to 1 paisa per kilobytes from July 1.
The launch of cheaper voice call rates through special tariff vouchers has come at a time when the sector has been seeing frequent increase in mobile call prices and reduction of discounts under schemes of various service providers since mid-2011.
Telecom companies that bought spectrum in the 2G auction of November last year would lose around Rs 4,000 crore
DoT decides not to scrap dual-technology telecom licences
The Pune-based Rahul Bajaj group, thanks to an amazing stock market ride by Bajaj Finance and Bajaj Finserv, has grabbed third spot, pushing the Aditya Birla group down to fourth position.
Telco sector has been been cutting back on freebies and discounted minutes to maintain profitability.
At present 100% FDI is allowed, of which up to 49% investment in a company can be done through the automatic route
Mittal said that overall, he expected that by March 2018, the "dust will settle down" for the entire industry.
Trai had asked the Attorney General for views on Jio's free voice and data offering till March 2017, that rivals have termed predatory.
