Liquor and airline baron Vijay Mallya, auto major Hero Honda and leading telecom company Reliance Communications have started negotiations with the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) to buy the rights of teams that will play in the Twenty20 tourney, which was announced to counter Subhash Chandra's Indian Cricket League (ICL).
Leading TV channels will see a blackout of spot advertising from midnight tonight after Hindustan Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Airtel, Pepsi, Coca-Cola and Reliance Communications, among others, directed their media-buying agencies not to book such advertisements on 16 news and entertainment channels, including NDTV, Network 18, Zee News, Star News, starting October 16.
Going by application dates, companies like Spice, Birla-promoted Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications (through Swan and Cheetah) and Hindustan Futuristic are in the lead for licences in different circles. The only new player in the list is the little-known ByCell.Several incumbents like Idea Cellular, Maxis-Aircell, owned by a Malaysian promoter, and Vodafone-Essar lead the list of applicants for initial spectrum allocation since they already hold licences.
Analysts expect that Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications (RCom) and Idea Cellular will post over 50 per cent annual growth in revenues (year-on-year) and more than 10 per cent sequential growth (over the previous quarter). Bharti continues to lead in the subscriber addition race (2.1 million in August).
With many new players waiting to launch their operations and Mobile Number Portability to be implemented shortly, the competition will intensify further.
At least a dozen advertisers, including Reliance Communications, Nokia, Pepsi, Hero Honda, Maruti and Visa among others, and host broadcaster ESPN STAR Sports may find themselves on a sticky wicket with India's exit from the current world Twenty20 cricket tournament.
Firming up its plans to rollout 3G services in the country, Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications (RCom) is planning to overlay a 3G infrastructure on its nationwide GSM network.
Flag Telecom, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications, has signed a $100 million
The technology's spectrum efficiency, low cost and simple installation make it the next big thing in the telecom world.
The technology's spectrum efficiency, low cost and simple installation make it the next big thing in the telecom world.
Making its foray into mobile content outsourcing, the CDMA major, Reliance Communications, has signed its first contract with a Singapore-based GSM service provider.
RCom, which, sources say had offered to pick up a 51 per cent stake in MTN through a complicated share-swap deal through which shareholders of the African company would pick up stake in RCom, had asked for an extension of the exclusivity talks for another three to four weeks.
However, the IT firms will get some benefits, as software exports from their Chinese campuses will yield more in local currency
The government is considering withdrawing legal cases against telecom companies, involving disputes of about Rs 40,000 crore, a source said on Tuesday. In line with this, the Department of Telecom has already filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court in a case against Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Communications to take an informed decision whether to proceed with the present appeal or not, the source said. DoT has said the telecom sector is passing through a financial stress due to various circumstances and telecom services providers are making losses.
Reliance has no illegal Swiss Bank accounts.
Buoyed by the entry of new telecom players and entry of Reliance Communications in the GSM space, the Indian telecom industry clocked the highest subscriber-addition in a month, by adding 15.87 million subscribers in March 2009.
Anil Ambani Group company, Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd said on Monday it will raise upto $1 billion through its Sponsored Global Depository Receipts and American Depository Receipts programme.
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.
The battle for subscribers in the direct-to-home (DTH) market is hotting up with Reliance Communications (RCom) close to finalising a bulk deal with the country's leading TV manufacturers -- LG Electronics, Samsung India and Sanyo -- which will be offered to customers at a hefty discount bundled with a DTH package.
The total revenues and net profit of the top six Indian telecom players, Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications, BSNL, Hutchison Essar, MTNL and Idea Cellular, more than doubled during the last two years.
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.
RCom proposed to raise Rs 10,000 crore through a long-term fund-based facility and the remaining Rs 3,000 crore through a non-convertible debenture issue. The firm is raising the debt to meet the capex requirements of various projects, including expansion of GSM network, and repayment of debts. The capex for the next financial year (Rs 150 billion) also includes expansion plans of its telecom infrastructure subsidiary, Reliance Infratel.
Currently, subscribers pay 50-60p for an SMS. By comparison, Tata Teleservices charges a paisa per word, for up to 15 characters.
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.
Traditional heavy spenders on cricket properties Vodafone, car maker Hyundai Motors, Reliance Communications and soft drink major Coca-Cola have decided to stay out of the bidding for the sponsorship of the Indian cricket team with the Board of Control for Cricket in India setting a steep base price to Rs 510 crore for a four-year deal for one of cricket's most coveted sponsorships.
Reliance Communications' third entry into the telecom business, starting with the time it was run under a different name when the Ambanis were an undivided group, has predictably got the mobile industry in a tizzy.
The Indian Navy on Monday unveiled a 15-year plan to boost maritime infrastructure even as Chief of Naval Staff Admiral R Hari Kumar said the force is working with the Army and the IAF to ensure tri-services jointness and integration to meet future challenges.
ADAG company offers one-time subscription charge of Rs 25. To capture its share in the fast-growing GSM subscriber base, RCom has focused on the segment that provides less than Rs 300 as average revenue per user and launched its services at competitive prices.
RComm has reportedly acquired an African firm for $500 million to offer telecom access services in Uganda.
Firming up its plans to rollout direct-to-home (DTH) television services, telecom firm Reliance Communications (RCom) has booked capacity on Malaysian satellite system, MEASAT-3. The deal size could not be confirmed, while it is understood that the deal is signed for around 15-20 years. RCom has booked four transponders, with an option to add four transponders after a year on MEASAT-3.
Anil Ambani Group firm Reliance Communications said it has bought back foreign currency convertible bonds (FCCBs) worth Rs 121.22 crore (Rs 1.21 billion).
Its effort to stave off bankruptcy by selling spectrum to Reliance Jio got scuttled after the long legal and government delays for approvals.
DoT sources confirmed receipt of the report by auditors Parekh and Co and said that it is yet to examine the findings. DoT would ask for RCom's response later.
Nifty gained 21 points to close at 5,024. The market breadth, however, was weak. The market breadth, however, was weak. Out of 2,791 stocks traded on Tuesday, there were 1,709 advancing stocks as against 1,012 declines.
Falcon, which is owned by Flag Telecom, has been damaged in the Middle East but it is unlikely to affect Net operations across India.
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
After a strong start to the week on Tuesday, the Sensex this morning opened 15 points higher at 16,868 amid subdued global cues.
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