Analysts have pointed out that with the dues arising out of the SC judgment there could soon be only two private telcos in the country, and not three - Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea - as now.
In the quarter ending June 2022, the growth of Internet subscribers was less than one per cent of all of 2021.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) on Tuesday became the first listed company to hit the Rs 20 lakh crore market valuation mark. The market heavyweight's stock jumped 1.88 per cent to its record high of Rs 2,957.80 apiece on the BSE. It finally settled at Rs 2,928.95 per piece, up 0.90 per cent on the bourse.
'I am shocked that the BJP makes so many commitments. What did they deliver as the NDA?'
Signalling both change and continuity, India's new government, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for a third consecutive term, got into work gear on Tuesday with cabinet ministers and ministers of state filing into their respective offices to assume charge.
'Tinkering will not do. Merely staggering spectrum dues comes nowhere near solving the problem,' cautions Rahul Khullar.
The Delhi Police, in a first information report (FIR) filed under anti-terror law Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) following allegations against news portal NewsClick, has alleged that a large amount of funds came from China in order to disrupt India's sovereignty and cause disaffection against the country.
44 per cent Indian respondents say that bundling media services with their telecom plan was the main reason they were willing to spend more on their mobile and fixed broadband bills.
Released on Wednesday, the report shows that 81 per cent of men and 72 per cent of women in India owned a mobile phone as of 2022, translating to a gender gap of 11 per cent. The numbers drop steeply in terms of mobile internet adoption. While 52 per cent of Indian men use mobile internet, women are way behind, with only 31 per cent of them accessing mobile internet, the report pointed out.
TIA said it is very concerned over the discriminatory policy proposals that India is contemplating.
On Monday, Attorney General R Venkataramani, appearing for the Centre, mentioned an interim application before a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justice J B Pardiwala.
The government is engaged in talks with telecom firms for a launch of commercial 5G services in some cities by Independence Day and has assured them that spectrum auction will take place in April-May, providing them a three to four-month window for the rollout. A top executive of a leading telecom gear company said the deadline was feasible in some cases. "It can be achieved in some cities as it will take us 4-6 weeks to deploy a network, once the equipment or components have reached India.
The slowdown in corporate revenue growth over the last one year has begun to reflect in India Inc's capital expenditure, or capex. The country's top listed companies are going slow on fresh investment in capacity expansion, in line with a deceleration in their top line growth. The combined fixed assets of the listed companies, excluding banking, finance services and insurance (BFSI) and the government-owned oil & gas firms, were up 10.1 per cent year-on-year (Y-o-Y) during April-September 2023 (H1FY24) - the slowest in 18 months - as against 21.1 per cent Y-o-Y growth in H2FY23 (October 2022-March 2023) and 11.6 per cent growth in the April-September 2022 period (H1FY23).
'In the next 15-20 years, India will have at least 50 new (AI-driven) billion-dollar companies that are going to solve problems for the largest companies around the world.'
Clearly, Foxconn Chairman Young Liu and his team are looking to raise their game in India.
Reliance Jio added 34.7 lakh mobile subscribers in September, cementing its lead in the competitive telecom market, while Airtel's wireless subscriber tally rose by 13.2 lakh, according to monthly data put out by Trai. Vodafone Idea lost 7.5 lakh mobile subscribers during September, dragging its wireless user tally to 22.75 crore. Reliance Jio gained 34.75 lakh wireless subscribers in September, and its user base climbed to 44.92 crore, as per data by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda made a strong pitch on Thursday for India getting into telecom manufacturing in a big way to address the demand.
Companies like Amazon Prime Video are also temporarily lowering bit rates -- a measure of how much data is being transferred -- to ease pressure on telecom network infrastructure.
Despite low tariffs, voice usage is not growing.
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.
For the smart phone industry, it has been a lacklustre quarter of CY2024, with sales falling by 3-4 per cent over the same period last year, according to Counterpoint Research projections. However, with the launch of many new models in Q1 of CY24, overall shipments grew year-on-year by 10-12 per cent. In CY23 shipments remained flat, ending the year with 152 million units.
The recent surge in crude oil prices could shave off the gains made by India Inc in profit margins in the past few quarters. Worse, it comes at a time when consumer demand in the country is slipping and major global economies are witnessing a slowdown. A back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests that the margin expansion accounted for three-fourths of the rise in the listed firms' operating profit between the April-June quarter (Q1) of FY23 and Q1FY24, and only a quarter of profits gains came from revenue growth.
Liberalization and telecom reforms are known to be necessary to hasten growth in tele-density.
Telecom industry in India is in a mess and it is a result of thinking that more the competition better it is, Vodafone India CEO & Managing Director Marten Pieters said on Thursday.
Attempts are being made to balance the need for health of the sector, consumer interest while complying with the Supreme Court order on statutory dues.
Despite the inherent attractiveness of the rural market for telecom operators various challenges still mar their entry.
After a two year run-in with controversies, telecom sector now looks stable and seems back on its feet with initial investment proposal of over Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) received in 2013.
The mistrust between the authorities and service providers can end if the contentious issues are addressed as a package deal.
With seven million new subscribers, India accounted for the highest net addition of mobile subscriptions globally in the second quarter of 2023, according to the August edition of Ericsson Mobility. Among national markets, India was followed by China with five million and the US with three million subscribers. The subscriber penetration in India, however, stood at 79 per cent, compared to 120 per cent in China, the report said.
The Supreme Court Registry is learnt to have refused to accept the Centre's plea seeking modification of its 2012 verdict in the 2G spectrum case which had said the State was duty bound to adopt the auction route while transferring or alienating the country's natural resources.
India has made major improvement in international and domestic long-distance services in 2004 despite a complex regulatory environment, uneven field and limited competition, according to global research firm Gartner.
A higher-than-expected consumer price inflation (CPI) print for March in the US has dashed hopes of an interest rate cut by the US Federal Reserve (US Fed) in June. Analysts now expect the US central bank to start cutting rates in September, provided inflation remains in check and oil prices remain supportive. The markets, analysts believe, partially factored in this possibility.
'We want to prove to the world that they will get the best code written from a small place like Wayanad.'
The company declined to disclose the names of the firms it was acquiring as the regulatory clearances and some negotiations are still in process.
The external affairs minister, speaking at a media summit organised by the TV9 Network, described the rise of India and China as "significant" in the global geopolitical scenario.
The number of telecom subscribers in the country grew by 4.12 crore (41.2 million) in 2005-06 to touch 13.96 crore (139.6 million). \n
India will become one of the top 10 telecom powers in the world by the year 2006, Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of Reliance Industries, said in New Delhi on Saturday, at the Pravasi Bhartiya conference.
It is boom time for the communications sector with India adding 200.8 lakh (20.08 million) wireless subscribers in the quarter ended December 2006, taking the gross telecom subscriber base to 18.9 crore (189.92 million).
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