Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited slashes local and STD roaming tariffs, abolishes monthly rental for roaming for Delhi subscribers.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd has bagged three licences for offering fixed, GSM-based mobile and international long distance services in Mauritius.
With a major network rollout on the cards, the government is not keen to change the pattern of tower monetisation for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), officials at the state-owned telecom-service provider said. The monetisation target in the telecom sector had to be revised owing to a change in BSNL's approach to mobile-phone tower monetisation, which had shifted from a sale-based model to a lease-based one.
The government is considering the option of handing over operations of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) to BSNL through an agreement, instead of pursuing a merger route, a source privy to the development said. A final call on this is likely to be taken in a month's time. The source said the option of handing over debt-laden MTNL's operations to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) through an agreement is being looked into.
BSNL has been among the top three net losers in terms of subscribers. MTNL, which operates in only the Delhi and Mumbai circles, has lost, too.
The top three fixed line players Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and Bharti Airtel reported a revenue decline.
An apex committee under DoT Secretary R Chandraskehar has been set up to oversee the required policy decisions and institutional framework for an alliance between the two public sector undertakings which have been incurring losses.
Other members of the search panel are secretary (personnel) Shantanu Consul, telecom secretary P J Thomas, IIT Chennai professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala, IIM Ahmedabad professor Samir Baruha and IISC Bangalore professor N Balakrishnan.
Swedish telecom firm Telia has shortlisted two Indian telcos to buyout its controlling stake in the Sri Lankan subsidiary, Suntel, officials said on Friday.
The proposal gains significance because the merger plan was given a quiet burial under former telecom minister A Raja.
As many as 17.9 lakh (1.79 million) subscribers of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and 203,000 customers of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd surrendered landline telephones between April to October this year, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
If candidates from the private sector are selected, this will be the first time that these telecom PSUs are headed by chiefs from the private sector.
The department of telecommunications has agreed to set up a search committee to look for new chairmen and managing directors for both, as suggested by the Sam Pitroda-led committee on the organsiation's revamp.
The prime minister's directive comes in the wake of telecom minister A Raja seeking his intervention for early resolution of BSNL's tender controversy.
During financial year 2011-12, MTNL was able to use only 14.66 per cent of the Budget estimate, while BSNL reported a better performance, according to a report by the standing committee on information technology.
The circumstances under which United Carbide Chief Warren Anderson suddenly fled the country after he arrived in the aftermath of Bhopal Gas Tragedy will continue to remain in mystery with the Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, which could also have thrown some light, unable to provide phone call details.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd has increased pulse duration for its landline to landline local calls in Mumbai.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd launched on Thursday its multi-play service offering Internet Protocol television and video-on-demand to its broadband customers.
A merger between state-run telecom firms Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd is the best option because it would create the country's largest telecom company, said Kuldeep Goyal, chairman and managing director of BSNL.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has started talks on synergising operations with Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, which offers telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai.
Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the two big state-controlled telecom companies, have written to the government asking that it bear the entire cost of the additional spectrum assigned to the two giants.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have sent separate letters to the department of telecommunications (DoT), asking the government to bear the entire burden of nearly Rs 11,000 crore they need to fork out as one-time payment for additional spectrum.
A decision on the merger will take some time as there are procedural problems with MTNL being a listed entity and BSNL non-listed.
While the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has approved the access of TV on mobiles, service providers still cannot stream live TV channels on to the handset due to spectrum allocation from the Ministry of Information and Broadcast. However, since the regulations do not allow a direct transmission of TV channels, service providers as well as content providers have started using a technology called Unicast which provides content to end-user on a one-on-one basis.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Ltd on Tuesday cut STD rates to lower the mobile-to-mobile call charges from a peak of Rs 9 a minute to Rs 4.80 a minute.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has rejected a proposal by Communications Minister A Raja for refund of the Rs 29,598 crore paid by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited for third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.
Upon discovery of the price for 3G and Broadband Wireless Access spectrum, BSNL and MTNL recently paid Rs 18,500.38 crore (Rs 185 billion) and Rs 11,097.97 crore (Rs 110.97 billion), respectively, to the government.
The government told the Rajya Sabha on Thursday that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited would not be privatised in the near future.\n\n\n\n
The proposed merger between two state-run telecom giants -- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited -- might have hit a roadblock, but both the companies plan to synergise their operations across the country.
The government on Thursday announced a new broadband policy and as expected has not accepted Telecom Regulatory Authority's proposal for unbundling the last mile link.
A consortium led by Delhi-based Vavasi group has sent feelers to China Mobile, the world's largest telecom company, for a possible joint bid for Zain Telecom, adding another element of complexity to the battle for the Kuwait-based company that involves India's two state-owned telecom service providers.
In April, DoT introduced a graded penalty system under which operators pay Rs 50,000 per subscriber if more than 20 per cent of their user base is without valid identity documents.
Govt to bear Rs 12k-cr cost of spectrum retention but without any cash outgo put up for Cabinet nod.
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd have submitted alternate basic (landline) telephony tariff plans, pegging the rates much below the ceiling rates announced by TRAI
BSNL was formed on Oct 1, 2000 and it had decided to included all the Central level Government Officers and employees, who were working on DOT basis, in BSNL fold and accordingly, group 'B' and group 'C' employees and group 'D' officers were included in BSNL. But still, the officers of group 'A', currently working as GM and DGM, have not been included in BSNL and they have been working on deputation as central level administrative officers.