New customer additions by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel pushed the Indian telecom subscriber base past 120.5 crore in June, according to a Trai report released on Tuesday. The wireless subscriber base grew marginally to over 117 crore and wireline connections in the country increased to 3.51 crore in June from 116.89 crore and 3.47 crore, respectively, in May, as per data released in Trai's subscriber report for June.
High-end mobile device Blackberry, which was till now available only with the GSM operators, will be soon launched on CDMA platform by Reliance Communications.
Telecom major Reliance Communications on Thursday launched what the company said would be the fastest wireless internet service in the country to date.
The telecom industry is moving towards a five-plus one model.
The company will invest Rs 16,000 crore (Rs 160 billion) for network expansion in FY08, said ADAG chairman Anil Ambani on Tuesday in Mumbai.
The move by Reliance Communications to outsource its IT requirements would result in an upfront cost savings of around $200 million (Rs 900 crore), with the company seeking a guarantee to this effect from the vendors.
A possible merger of Reliance Communications of India and South Africa's MTN could see Anil Ambani become the enlarged group's chairman and biggest shareholder with a stake of almost 35 per cent.
Reliance Communications, India's second-largest wireless operator, will launch phone services in Uganda by year-end, marking its first foray into international mobile phone markets.
The DoT had last week sent a detailed reply to all the issues raised by the CAG.
India's telecom subscriber base grew to over 1.17 billion in October with Bharti Airtel maintaining its leadership in mobile subscriber addition that accounts for over 98 per cent of total connections in the country, according to the monthly report released by sector regulator Trai on Wednesday. This is the second consecutive month when Airtel added highest number of subscribers. In September, it had regained the leadership position in subscriber addition after a gap of four years. The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company added 3.67 million new customers in October, taking its total wireless customer base to 330.28 million in October 2020, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) report said.
Anil Ambani group company Reliance Communications on Wednesday posted a 198 per cent increase in net profit at Rs 924 crore (Rs 9.24 billion) for the quarter ended December 31.
On Monday, Ambani had said the Reliance group was open to join hands with Bharti Airtel for improving telecom network for 4G services in Punjab.
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".
Indian telecommunications companies are ringing louder. Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications are among the big league of gloal telecom companies.
Tech billionaire Elon Musk thanked Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia for not agreeing with Indian tycoons Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal on auctioning spectrum for satellite services, saying he is looking forward to serving Indians. Reacting to Scindia's statement that satellite spectrum will not be auctioned, Musk, in a post on X, said, "much appreciated! We will do our best to serve the people of India with Starlink".
After the success of its wireless-in-local loop (mobile) service, Reliance Infocomm on Tuesday launched another innovative communication product -- fixed phones sans any wire connection.
Anil Ambani, whose flagship company Reliance Communications is in talks with South Africa-based MTN, is looking to buy more than 40 per cent stake in the telecom major, a media report said on Tuesday.
RCom is set to launch a lifetime connection for Rs 199, the lowest from any service provider in the country.
The company added 2.8 million wireless subscribers on its GSM and CDMA platforms in the month of June, RCom said in a statement. RCom offers telephony services on both GSM and CDMA platforms.
Reliance Jio to take over mobile business assets of troubled RCom at an estimated value of Rs 24,000-Rs 25,000 crore.
Officials of Reliance Jio Infocomm claimed to have achieved broadband speeds on their networks that are 10-12 times faster than 3G services.
Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, is understood to be in talks with leading Indian telecom companies like Tata Communications (formerly VSNL), Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications that could bid for broadband wireless access spectrum to be auctioned by the government in January 2010.
The setting up of STEAG is part of the Army's efforts to develop technologies considering the future battlefield, they said.
RCom, which launched its nationwide GSM services in January last year, currently offers telephony services on both the GSM and CDMA platforms.
The 4G service may use Reliance Retail, with a surging customer base, as the launch pad
The Unified Licence for all 22 Service Areas across India will make the company the first telecom operator in the country to get pan India Unified Licence, the company said in a statement.
Reliance Jio may not ask for a premium for its 5G services in the initial stages of the launch, according to sources in the company. The company will roll out 5G commercial services in four cities -Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, and Kolkata - around Diwali this month and slowly ramp up the processes for other cities, too. A senior executive, when asked whether Jio will charge higher tariffs for 5G against 4G, said: "In the initial stages, customers have to adopt 5G, then they will have to find value in the service, and then one can look at monetisation."
Just ahead of its mega FPO opening to public investors, Vodafone Idea (VIL) has announced closure of its anchor book allocation, raising about Rs 5,400 crore from marquee global as well as domestic investors, according to a statutory filing by the telco. This could be the third-largest anchor book after One 97 Communications and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). One 97 Communications and LIC had raised Rs 8,235 crore and Rs 5,627 crore in the anchor round, respectively.
RCom had won 3G spectrum in 13 circles, including Delhi and Mumbai.
Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel retained the top rank with a market share of 33.21 per cent and a total user base of 77.48 million. Vodafone-Essar added 1.87 million and maintained a market share of 23.41 per cent. COAI, which does not include Reliance Telecom, estimates RT added at least 370,000 subscribers in the month,
With many new players waiting to launch their operations and Mobile Number Portability to be implemented shortly, the competition will intensify further.
In a move that could bring down prices of CDMA handsets further, Qualcomm Inc has licensed Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd to manufacture 3G CDMA2000 mobile handsets, fixed-wireless phones and line modem cards.
Anil Ambani's Reliance Communications, which offers GSM and CDMA mobile services, said it added 1.62 million new mobile users in March.A company official said the net additions from January to March this year stood at 4.83 million. RCom, the country's largest CDMA operator, added 1.6 million mobile users each for the first two months.
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.
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