Reliance Communications has accused "old 2G operators" of causing over Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion) in losses to the exchequer through "fraudulent means".
The government has sent show-cause notices to 5 telecom firms including Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices for alleged understatement of revenues of over Rs 10,000 crore.
Also mandates pursuing other consolidation options.
Telecom major Reliance Communications on Thursday launched what the company said would be the fastest wireless internet service in the country to date.
Ambani termed COAI's appeal to the telecom tribunal against the government granting RCom dual-use technology (CDMA and GSM) as "unnecessary and unwarranted". RCom, the country's largest provider of CDMA mobile services, recently received permission to start GSM services under its existing licence for which it paid a fee of Rs 1,651 crore (Rs 16.51 billion).
The staggering Rs 35,000-crore (Rs 350-billion) debt of RCom makes it the most indebted telco in the country, and constitutes nearly 10 per cent of the industry's debt of Rs 3.5 trillion.
The telecom regulator in the second ultimatum to GSM operators, including Bharti, Vodafone and BSNL, has given August 21 as the deadline to give interconnections to the RCom GSM network. Trai has cited it as a licencing condition to provide interconnection among the service provider implying if a mobile operator does not give interconnection to another based on mutual commercial agreement, it is a violation of license condition attracting penalty.
There was an under reporting of Rs 1000 crore (Rs 10 billion) to Rs 1500 crore (Rs 15 billion) by the telecom firms, to avoid payment of licence fee, and the government may have lost about Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) because of this, telecom minister A Raja said during Question Hour.
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Group on Thursday signed an agreement with China's retail player Wanda Group to set up a joint venture for building integrated township projects in India.
Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Communications on Monday said its consolidated net profit rose by 11.91 per cent to Rs 6,044.93 crore (Rs 60.44 billion) for the year ended March 31, 2009, over the same period last year.
Noting that Indian firms face a high risk of mark-to-market losses due to a volatile forex market, a brokerage firm has named telecom major Reliance Communications and auto giant Tata Motors among five blue-chip companies estimated to have suffered the most during 2008-09.
This effectively means MTN will not talk to other potential bidders while discussions are on with the Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company. MTN had not agreed to a similar exclusivity agreement with Bharti Airtel, with which talks broke down following differences over control of the combined entity.
Anil Ambani group company Reliance Communications on Monday announced entering into an exclusive negotiations with South Africa's telecom giant MTN to discuss potential combination of their businesses.
The network sharing agreement is the start of a new era of partnership between the brothers. More deals on sharing towers and intra-city fibre network are likely.
The company recently received permission to launch GSM services within its existing license and is awaiting allocation of spectrum, the radio frequency that enables wireless communications, from the government. CDMA and GSM services cannot be operated on the same spectrum.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal tried to put up a brave front over the allegations levelled against him of causing loss to the government by favouring an Anil Ambani-led company.
This will be the country's largest order for telecom equipment and one of the world's biggest. The installed production capacity of GSM electronics worldwide is 250 to 300 million lines annually, suggesting that the order could account for more than 10 per cent of global production over the next three years.
The company has won the award under the 'Operator Leadership' category for having demonstrated leadership in the wireless community through the expansion of 3G CDMA system deployments and the unique implementation of 3G CDMA technologies in a specific market, a release issued by the company stated.
The company said it becomes the first operator in the country to partner with Twitter on the new 'Twitter Access' programme.
At present, Reliance is in exclusive talks with MTN with respect to a potential combination of their businesses. The exclusivity talks period of 45 days started on May 26. The due diligence is currently in the final stages and is likely to be concluded anytime. Industry sources said MTN top brass, including Azmi Mikati, chief executive of the investment unit that is MTN's second-largest shareholder and Phuthuma Nhelko, chief executive of MTN are positively inclined to it.
In February, Wang Jianzhou, China Mobile's chairman and CEO, told Business Standard at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona that the company was keen to expand to India. China Mobile has over 450 million subscribers. RCom, which offers CDMA mobile telecom services and started GSM services a few months ago, has over 70 million customers. An RCom spokesperson declined to comment and an email query to China Mobile was unanswered.
Under this initiative, ICICI Bank's customers can transfer money anytime and anywhere in the country to people having an account in the bank using their Reliance mobile phones, it said.
The Supreme Court on Tuesday granted 10-year time to telecom firms like Vodafone Idea, Bharti Airtel and Tata Teleservices for paying the Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR)-related dues to the department of telecommunications with certain conditions.
According to sources, with this deal and some others in the anvil Reliance would be able to double its network capacity(GSM and CDMA) from 35 million lines currently.
RCom's employee cost declined by 20.7 per cent.
Google is believed to be in talks to take on a lease of 500 GB bandwidth; this, according to industry sources, puts the deal size at around $80-100 million (Rs 320-400 crore).
The bidding companies have the choice of either bidding individually or as a group.
The bidding companies have the choice of either bidding individually or as a group.
RComm will test launch its direct to home services Big TV this week, which would include some niche channels that are currently not available in India.
Reliance Communications will slash the homebound international call tariffs - calls made by Indians visiting abroad - by around 50 per cent to cash in on the growing Rs 800-crore inbound market.
RCom may get around Rs 4,500 crore by trading its radiowaves to Reliance Jio.
Right after it returned to the telecom sector by acquiring Infotel Broadband, Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries (RIL) began discussions with brother Anil Ambani's mobile service provider, Reliance Communications (RCom), for a possible sharing of infrastructure.
A number of investment banks in their research reports on Wednesday hailed the deal, saying it was strategic in nature for both cash-rich RIL and debt-laden RCOM.
Anil Ambani-led company Reliance Communications appointed JP Morgan as the merchant banker on Monday to look for strategic buyers for its wholly-owned tower subsidiary Reliance Telecom Infrastructure Ltd.
Riding high on a sharp growth in subscriber base, Anil Ambani group's telecom arm RCOM on Thursday reported a 23.9 per cent jump in its first quarter net profit at Rs 1,512 crore (Rs 15.12 billion) and announced plans to invest over Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) in the current fiscal.
Tata Teleservices spokesperson confirmed the development, and said: "We have written to theDoT seeking clarity on the issue."
A day before the deadline of exclusive takeover talks between Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications and South African company MTN expires, Reliance Industries has invoked the dispute resolution clause of the non-competition agreement against RCom. However, RCom plans to go ahead with its proposed merger with MTN without taking RIL's claim into account.
The plan, first initiative by the company to roll out its 3G services, will allow customers access to social networking sites, instant messaging applications, chat services and email accounts like yahoo, gmail and hotmail.
The company has also entered into alliances with laptop manufacturers to bundle Reliance NetConnect Data Cards, its President (Personal Business) S P Shukla told a press conference in Bangalore.
Telkom Kenya has a monopoly on landline services in the country. If an Indian company wins the bid, it will enable the company to enter the country's telecom market, according to news reports in international press.
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