On 60th Independence Day, it is bonanza time for telecom subscribers with operators rolling out a range of services.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has received permission to offer CDMA services across the country (except Delhi and Mumbai) under the crossover technology policy. Under the policy, existing GSM operators are allowed to offer CDMA service and vice versa within the same licence after paying a fee.BSNL is the third company after Reliance Communications (which is in CDMA and wanted to operate GSM service) and Tata Teleservices (similar to Reliance) which has been given licences
A high-profile team from MTN is also expected to meet Reliance Industries Ltd next week to take stock of the situation. RCom had informed the bourses on May 26 that it has entered into exclusive negotiations with MTN for 45 days soon after the South African giant aborted its talks with the Sunil Mittal-controlled Bharti group. The deadline will end on July 8.
However, operators said the chief beneficiary would be the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, which have already been given the spectrum for 3G services, as well as Reliance Communications, which is still to roll out its 2G GSM network.
Investors in Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Communications have reaped a windfall with the company adding over Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) in its market cap since its listing on the bourses last year.
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.
The contracts for the procurement of the platforms and weapons systems were signed in the presence of Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and defence secretary Giridhar Aramane, under whose guidance these deals fructified, an official readout said.
Private telecom company Reliance Infocomm has launched international roaming facility through tie-ups with global operators including China Unicon and Sprint PCS of the US.
Reliance Petroinvestments, a subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), has approached the Securities Appellate Tribunal against the capital markets regulator, which imposed a Rs 11-crore (Rs 110 million) penalty on the company in the Indian Petrochemicals Corp Ltd (IPCL) insider trading case.
In a bonanza for its shareholders, billionaire Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Sunday announced it is hiving off its entire real estate assets, estimated to be of around Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion), into a separate listed company.
Close on the heels of cellular operators announcing the launch of one-paisa-per-second billing scheme for all local/STD calls, roaming services and SMS, MTNL has slashed mobile tariffs to half-a-paisa per second on home network.
The department of telecommunications is planning to seek details from four operators - Bharti-Airtel, Hutchison-Essar, Tata Teleservices Ltd and Reliance Communications - on the fulfillment of rollout obligations under the mobile telephony licence.
The race for Hutch-Essar, the country's fourth largest mobile service provider, quickened on Wednesday with Hong-Kong based Hutchison Telecommunications International Ltd formally informing the 4 companies in the fray to submit their bids by Friday
The race for acquiring India's third largest mobile services provider Hutch, has hotted up with Reliance Communications backed by an US equity funder
The group said Dassault choose Reliance Defence Ltd to meet its 'offset' or export obligation in the contract and the Ministry of Defence has no role in the selection of Indian partners by the foreign vendors.
Spectrum auction ends, brings Rs 1.09 tln to govt kitty.
Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani on Thursday met Finance Minister P Chidambaram and senior DoT officials, even as his company started examining the books of Hutchison Essar Ltd for a possible bid.
Reliance Industries on Monday categorically denied any intent to bid for the UK telecom group, BT. RIL dismissed a report titled `Reliance mulling bid for UK's telco BT Group' as "completely speculative and baseless". "We categorically deny any intent to bid for the UK telecom group, BT, formerly British Telecom, as reported in the article...," Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) said in a communication to BSE.
Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd, whose market cap has touched Rs 65,000 crore
Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd has become an over Rs 90,000 crore (Rs 900 billion) company going by the conversion price of its just concluded Foreign Currency Convertible Bonds.
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's market capitalisation increased to Rs 86,000 crore (Rs 860 billion) following the listing of the group company -- Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd (RCoVL).
At a time when exchange-traded funds (ETFs) were unloading Jio Financial Services from their portfolios, some active fund managers were placing large bets on the demerged financial services arm of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), a report by Nuvama Alternative & Quantitative Research shows. Motilal Oswal Mutual Fund and Quant Mutual Fund were the top MF buyers of the stock in August. They bought around 60 million shares each, together investing around Rs 2,800 crore.
Ambani said Jio will offer the world's lowest data tariff
Claim breach in procedure, demand probes; Reliance denies charge
A sluggish economy and stalled bureaucratic decision-making for the past two years thwarted capital investment and dented earnings, making it tough for the companies to raise funds.
The entry of the deep-pocketed conglomerate is expected to heighten competition.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
UV Asset Reconstruction Company Ltd has made the highest bid of Rs 16,000 crore to buy Anil Ambani group's Reliance Communications and Reliance Telecom, which are in the National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT). Last year it was the highest bidder for taking over Aircel's assets for an upfront payment of Rs 150 crore. Surajeet Das Gupta and Dev Chatterjee dig deeper to find out more about this little known company.
It has suggested OTTs be subject to the same security requirements that a traditional TSP has to adhere to.
HDFC chairman Deepak Parekh on Friday exuded confidence that the synergies between HDFC Bank and the group companies will deepen with the bank taking on the mantle of ownership of the group following the reverse merger likely to be effective from Saturday. As chairman of HDFC Ltd, Parekh in the last message to the shareholders said home loans will now be complemented with HDFC Bank's core strengths -- its sales engine, execution capabilities at scale and deep insights on consumer behaviour. The reverse merger of parent HDFC Ltd with HDFC Bank is expected to be effective from July 1.
If the apex court decides on a 15-year repayment tenure, it would pose a grave challenge for the debt ridden VIL.