Tensions between private telecom players and the government ratcheted up a notch after it was discovered that state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was given additional spectrum of up to 10 MHz for GSM technology services in over 16 circles even as private competitors have been waiting to be allotted spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications since December 2006.
While Vodafone will hold 45.1% of the shares in the new entity, to be renamed at a later stage, Kumar Mangalam Birla and other promoters of Idea group will hold 26%. Vodafone India will also transfer 4.9% of its shareholding to Idea's promoters for a cash consideration of Rs 38.74 lakh crores.
The government expects to garner about Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) from the existing mobile operators such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea by imposing a one-time fee on those who are holding spectrum beyond the threshold limit of 6.2 Mhz, a move which will raise the cost of radio frequency.
Upping the ante in the ongoing spectrum war, Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani has shot off a missive to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), accusing GSM operators of having cornered spectrum under the valuable 900 MHz.
India will appeal against the verdict of the Hague tribunal in Antrix-Devas deal case, in which the international court had declared the annulling of the contract as "unfair" and "inequitable" and asked it to pay huge amount as compensation.
Telecom Secretary J S Deepak has resolved the toughest issues facing the sector, but his real test will be in delivering on the govt's Digital India dream
It was discovered that state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited was given additional spectrum of up to 10 MHz for GSM technology services in over 16 circles even as private competitors have been waiting to be allotted spectrum by the DoT.
Foreign players too will be allowed to compete in the 3G space.
As per TRAI norms, Vodafone and Airtel are close to getting added spectrums, given their growing subscriber rates.
Reacting sharply to Bharti Airtel's offer to pay Rs 2,650 crore (Rs 26.50 billion) for all-India spectrum, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Monday said said the GSM operator was trying to prevent competition. "This is another ploy of Bharti to prevent competition. It shows their (Bharti's) anti-consumer and anti-competitive behaviour," an RCom spokesperson said.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has got two Mhz of additional spectrum from Department of Telecom to support its growing mobile subscriber base in the country.
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.
Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) has dissociated itself from the GSM lobby's stance on spectrum, stating there is no merit in the demand for additional spectrum.
'Our mandate is to work in a transparent manner, keeping two objectives in mind - consumer interest and growth of the telecom sector.'
The government announced a Rs 1000-crore (Rs 10-billion) project to convert wireless operations of defence services on Optical Fibre Cable, a move that is estimated to release 45 MHz of spectrum.
For Uninor, it is more important to serve customers better in existing circles rather than going for pan-India operations.
For Rs 39, customers can talk for 300 minutes anywhere in India and worldwide
While moving towards the new technology is compelling and inevitable, powering 5G would also mean massive initial investments for telcos, says Surajeet Das Gupta.
Docomo is looking to expand its reach beyond Japan and sees India and Africa as key emerging markets.
Telecom Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Wednesday projected that India would have 500 million telephones by 2010, to facilitate which the government was making efforts to release 45 mhz of spectrum by the end of this year.
'The telecom companies are our lifeline now, despite having nearly collapsed under debt because of ill-advised policies.' 'Perhaps our obvious dependence on telecom services will spark well-conceived policies for this sector,' says Shyam Ponappa.
Having achieved a subscriber base of over 10 lakh in Mumbai, state owned Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd has approached the government for an additional frequency of two MHz to expand its cellular mobile services.
A new board has been constituted for the merged entity 'Vodafone Idea Ltd' with 12 directors (including six independent directors) and Kumar Mangalam Birla as its Chairman. The board has appointed Balesh Sharma as the CEO, the companies said in a joint statement. The combination will have an all-India revenue market share of 32.2 per cent and take the numero uno slot in nine telecom circles, it said adding that both Vodafone and Idea brands will continue.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday recommended lowering spectrum charges paid by service providers to the government to 4% from 6% -- a move which may further bring down telecom tariffs.
The GSM Association, a union of 650 GSM mobile phone service operators, asked India not to allocate spectrum at 1900 MHz to CDMA operators like Reliance.
As part of the national telecom policy, which is likely to be released next month, various levies and charges including SUC would be reviewed in line with the input tax credit available.
The device, which starts with a price tag of $1,299, will be available from Wednesday.
Roadshows will be held in Singapore, Hong Kong, London, New York and Boston, NTPC gained close to 1%.
The merger will result in substantial cost and capex synergies with an estimated net present value of around USD 10 billion after integration costs and spectrum liberalisation payments, with estimated savings of USD 2.1 billion annually from the fourth year of the merger.
Acer, one of the world's top five branded PC vendors, on Wednesday announced the launch of its Acer Power 290 series PC for the SMB market, based on Intel's latest Pentium 4 processor technology.
The world's first Windows Mobile 5.0 mini laptop phones were launched in the Indian market on Thursday by i-mate and 4G Mobile Retailing and Broadband services.
The 30-share Sensex ended up 8 points at 27,508 and the 50-share Nifty closed 1 point higher at 8,284.
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