In what could be one of the largest outsourcing deals in the Indian telecom space, Reliance Communications is close to awarding a $500-600 million (Rs 2,500-3,000 crore) operations and maintenance contract to Foprench telecom infrastructure provider Alactel-Lucent.
This new service will compete with several other providers, including Reliance Communications. But VSNL officials were upbeat about their offering.
Multinational mobile companies such as Nokia, Samsung, Motorola and LG, who dominate the mobile handset space with over 75 per cent of the market share, might face a new challenge. This time it's not from Chinese unbranded products, which have been flooding the Indian market.
On 60th Independence Day, it is bonanza time for telecom subscribers with operators rolling out a range of services.
On September 1, 2007, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reigned in the 'don't call regime' with setting up of the NDNC. Subscribers had to register with the NDNC by calling the respective service provider and the marketing calls were to stop within the next 45 days. However, even after 10 months, unsolicited calls still haunt mobile users.
The companies are looking at tapping solar power, wind energy and bio-fuels, including fish and vegetable oil, to run base transceiver systems in areas with poor power supply.
Reliance Communications Ltd and Research In Motion on Tuesday announced the launch of BlackBerry Curve 8330 smartphone in India.
Solicitor General of India Goolam Vahanvati has said no further allotment of spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz should be made to telecom operators till the report of the committee on its pricing and allocation is received.If the opinion is acted upon, it would affect companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Aircel, which have applied for extra spectrum in other circles.
The company has defaulted on some of the payments to lenders and it has received time till December for strategic restructuring plan
Tata Teleservices spokesperson confirmed the development, and said: "We have written to theDoT seeking clarity on the issue."
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.
Though the controversy over the security of BlackBerry services is yet to be resolved, the four operators that offer these services - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, BPL Mobile and Reliance Communications - have added over 50,000 customers in the four months since the problems began. Before this, the push-mail service, which was introduced in India in October 2004, had 400,000 subscribers according to industry estimates.
But with the tower asset sale being called off, RCom now has to wait for a new plan before it can reduce its staggering Rs 33,000-crore (Rs 330-billion) debt, which would have been reduced by over half (Rs 18,000 crore or Rs 180 billion) if the tower deal would have gone through.
New telecom operators such as Swan, Unitech, Datacom and Loop, and Reliance Communications have asked regulator Trai to reduce the termination charges, while existing GSM players, led by Bharti, want the 30 paise per minute charge to continue.
The actor is ready with the Kannada film which also stars Anjana Sukhani and Yuvika Choudhary.
Idea cellular trebled its share in the Mumbai market, albeit on a low base. RCom, for its part added five million (including GSM) subscribers during the month, numbers that have both surprised and confounded the market.
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.
It is estimated that RCom has been reeling under debt of over Rs 46,000 crore.
Reliance Communications is believed to be in advanced talks with Canadian firm Iseemedia Inc for mobile mail gateway agreement that will provide email facilities to low-end handsets.
The Department of Telecommunications has received 21 bids from telecom operators and infrastructure service providers for the Rs 2,395 crore (Rs 23.95 billion) rural telephony project.
Reliance Communications is investing Rs 800 crore ($200 million) to enhance its managed global ethernet services
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has sought details of the arrangements made by Reliance Communications to restore bandwidth in case of submarine cable failure.
Accounting regulator ICAI on Wednesday said it has asked Reliance Communication, which is under attack for alleged overstating of revenues and evasion of licence fee, to provide financial details before it can initiate action against the teleco's auditors.
RCom had recently received spectrum in 13 circles under the new cross over technology policy, in which a code division multiple access operator can also operate GSM services with the same licence. IT operates GSM in the remaining circles.
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.
BPO and IT services across India remained largely unaffected.
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.
French telecom infrastructure player Alcatel has bagged an approximately $350 million (roughly Rs 1,400 crore) contract from FLAG Telecom, a subsidiary of Reliance Communications (RCom), to build a fully IP-enabled Trans-Pacific undersea cable.
The move should help as many as 25 aspirants, including Unitech, Parsvnath, DLF, HFCL and Shyam Telecom, seeking to enter the lucrative GSM mobile services space.
Two regional CDMA players - HFCL in Punjab and Shyam Telecom in Rajasthan - have deposited fee for their GSM spectrum as per the dual technology permitted by the government. HFCL deposited Rs 151.75 crore (Rs 1.51 billion) for Punjab circle, while Shyam gave about Rs 32 crore for the Rajasthan circle.
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.
In a move that will result in further snowballing of the spectrum issue, British telecom major Vodafone has termed the Reliance Communications' (RCom) allegations "as false and inconsistent with the facts".
After 3G auctions, analysts worried over the likely rise in debt and pressure on margins
The Indian government has emerged as the biggest winner.
Corporate giant Tatas on Tuesday asked the government to seek surrender of excess spectrum lying with GSM operators, a line being aggressively pursued by Reliance Communications chief Anil Ambani. With this, the top two CDMA players have joined forces against GSM operators like Bharti and Vodafone to seek return of spectrum beyond the contractual amount of 6.2 Mhz.
The FIR was lodged by the Lucknow Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee after an emergent meeting held in Lucknow on Monday, official sources said on Tuesday.
Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Saturday reacted sharply to rival Bharti Airtel's statement that others have equal opportunity to succeed, saying "if Bharti honestly believes in competition, it should welcome entry of RCom and other new players in GSM" segment.
Flag Telecom was looking at divesting up to 20 per cent of its equity stake through an international convertible bond issue and raise over $200 million.
Tata Steel and Anil Ambani-led& Reliance Communications raised $1.375 billion through overseas borrowings and convertible bonds in September, according to data released by the Reserve Bank of India. Tata Steel, which early this year acquired Anglo-Dutch firm Corus to become the sixth-largest maker of the alloy, raised $875 million for overseas acquisition through foreign currency convertible bonds.
The Department of Telecommunication and mobile service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications failed to reach a consensus on the spectrum issue during a meeting held on Wednesday. According to sources, Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani raised the issue of extra spectrum being held by GSM operators. He asked how over 6.2 MHz of radio waves have been given to GSM players beyond their contractual agreement.
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