Reliance Infratel, the tower arm of Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications, has agreed to merge its 50,000-tower portfolio with GTL Infrastructure in a cash and stock deal, making it arguably one of the largest merger and acquisition transactions in India.
In an interview at the GSMA conference in Barcelona on Tuesday, Mittal broke his silence on the scam and the very public spat between Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications: "My plea is that the industry shut their mouths; zip up and let the various investigative agencies do their job," he said.
The DoT had last week sent a detailed reply to all the issues raised by the CAG.
With the Beijing Olympics 2008 starting from Friday, three of the major Indian telecom service providers Reliance Communications, BPL Mobile and Tata Communications are launching services aimed at tapping the communication potential of the event.
More and more companies are opting for outsourcing data centres. Data centre operators are also called managed service providers (MSPs). These MSPs include Reliance Communications (RCom), Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Bharti, Netcore, and Ctrl S. The biggest outsourcers are enterprises, banks and financial institutions. IT managers in the Asia-Pacific region rely on outsourcing data centre operations more than their peers.
After seeking the surrender of spectrum, Reliance Communications (RCom) chairman Anil Ambani is seeking installation of frequency-efficient technologies such as synchronised network and FemtoCells that can be used at no additional cost. Ambani listed seven technologies to improve mobile network efficiency in the country.
The issue of spectrum allocation has become murkier, with the Association of United Service Providers of India (Auspi) -- the CDMA operators' body -- slamming the move by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to allocate additional spectrum to existing private GSM operators.
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).
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.
As Reliance Communications (RCom) is struggling to sew up a deal with South African telecom major MTN, another Indian telecom service provider Tata Communications is all set to get a majority stake in South African telecom firm Neotel.
The battle between the Ambani brothers flared up again today -- this time over the Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group's (ADAG's) bid to seal a merger deal with South African telecom company, MTN.
The government struck a cordial note with the GSM mobile lobby by agreeing on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai's) norms for spectrum allocation, a move described by rival CDMA player Reliance Communications (RCom) as "succumbing to pressure".
The slowdown in capital expansion is clearly seen in the current financial year. Large sectors such as cement, metal, oil and gas, power and telecom have provided negligible funds in the first quarter for their capex plans.
While RCom owes Indian banks close to Rs 45,000 crore, Ambani has lost close to $408 million of personal wealth year-to-date until Tuesday.
The COAI decision comes in the wake of Anil Ambani group company Reliance Communications and two other CDMA players receiving approvals to offer GSM services in their respective circles of operation from the Department of Telecom on Friday.
"We will start our GSM services soon. We have got spectrum in 13 circles in one or two months. We expect to get spectrum in all the circles barring one or two," TTSL managing director Anil Sardana said. RCom has launched GSM services in 11,000 towns, which would be extended to 22,000 towns in the next few months.
The Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group on Thursday announced it that would build the world's largest next generation under-sea cable network with an investment of $1.5 bn (about Rs 7,000 crore) over the next three years.
Formally throwing its hat in the Reliance Communications said it was looking to acquire its rival Hutch-Essar and has received funding support for the proposed deal.
'While investors in Reliance have had to play a game of patience for long stretches, for Anil the challenge is to do what used to be his brother's forte -- generating cash by putting assets in the ground and making things,' says T N Ninan.
A DVR is a device that allows consumers to pause, record, play back, rewind and fast forward their favourite television shows. DTH companies are expected to slash DVRs box prices by nearly half to Rs 7,000-Rs 8,000 per unit. DVRs for cable channels would soon be available for between Rs 3,000 and Rs 4,000, industry sources said.
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.
Telecom complaints against other players were below 500 in the first half of 2016.
New Delhi is also set to top its target of raising at least $13 billion.
Reliance Jio Infocomm is the only company which had in 2010 won a pan-India spectrum for 4G services but is yet to start commercial services.
Bulk of these customers use 2G phones and are still focused on voice services and might prove useful for both Bharti Airtel and the Idea-Vodafone combine.
The country's wireless subscriber base fell to 87.05 crore at the end of September, registering the first drop in five months, after Reliance Communications deactivated services of over 1 crore "unprofitable" users.
RCom and Tata Teleservices are the top net losers of subscribers under mobile number portability (MNP) services.
Even as telecom services are being restored in Kashmir Valley, mobile operators are offering free calling facility in the region.
Mukesh's television unit has been aggressively wrapping up deals with hundreds of small players in a street-by-street effort to conquer that final hurdle in its cable TV drive
If raters get away by moving from AAA to D overnight after companies default, as happened with DHFL, YES Bank, RCom, and IL&FS, it shows a complete breakdown in the rating system. It calls for exemplary punishment, not kid glove treatment, says Debashis Basu.
More asset sales may be only way out, though most of the group companies' ratings have been downgraded and their combined market value is now a fraction of their combined debt.
The sharing agreement will provide more bandwidth for RJIL to provide its high-speed 4G services.
In what is in effect a deposit to be paid into court pending a full trial in the case, Judge David Waksman has set a six-week timeline for Anil to pay $100 million to three Chinese banks as he concluded that he did not accept Ambani's defence that his net worth was nearly zero or that his family would not step in to assist him when "push came to shove".
Telcos may hike mobile rates to recover spectrum cost: Moody's
The figure is based on the base price of spectrum for the upcoming auction fixed by the TRAI and on the assumption that there will be no bidding war.
The minister said the companies have given representation which is being examined by the DoT before taking a final decision.
The Jio-Bharti battle will not just be limited to mobile telephony but will extend to the fibre to home space too.
Internet.org is a Facebook-led initiative
Ambani said, in the telecom space, the focus will be on debt reduction, and the virtual merger did away with the need for major capex and will help towards this
