Telecom gearmaker Nokia will boost its manufacturing capacity in India by 1.5x over the next few years to support the 5G services roll-out, said Tarun Chhabra, the company's country head of mobile networks business. Nokia is supplying network equipment to Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio for their 5G networks from its plant in Chennai. Vodafone Idea is yet to finalise its contract as it awaits fresh funding.
Billionaire Gautam Adani's group is said to be planning a surprise entry into the race to acquire telecom spectrum, which will pitch it directly against Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio and telecom czar Sunil Bharti Mittal's Airtel, sources said. Applications for participating in the July 26 auction of airwaves, including those capable of providing fifth-generation or 5G telecom services such as ultra-high-speed internet connectivity, closed on Friday with at least four applications. Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea -- the three private players in the telecom sector -- applied, three sources with knowledge of the matter said.
Jio and Ericsson tested the limits of 5G by demonstrating multi-gigabit speeds and super-low latency capabilities that are making new offerings such as remote control of machines and 360-degree 4K video streaming.
Amazon will invest more than Rs 2,000 crore (about $233 million) in India in 2025 as it strengthens its logistics and safety standards, said the ecommerce company on Thursday.
Bharti to spend Rs 1,600 cr for spectrum payout over 10 yrs; Telenor to service its own debt.
India's versatile media and entertainment industry can grow more than three-fold to $100 billion in the next decade, creating millions of jobs and a ripple effect across sectors, billionaire Mukesh Ambani said on Thursday.
Reliance Jio saw fall in speeds from 7.2 mbps in September to 6 mbps in October, according to CLSA report.
Flipkart Group Chief Executive Kalyan Krishnamurthy on Monday said the firm was advancing preparations for a potential initial public offering (IPO) in India, which included shifting its holding company to India from Singapore. Speaking at an internal town hall, Krishnamurthy said the company's leadership structure is strengthening and that the steps toward relocating Flipkart's legal base to India are progressing as planned, according to people familiar with the matter.
Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) is discussing a three-pronged plan that includes an additional divestment of $250-300 million this year, apart from what it has diluted in favour of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and US-based private equity fund KKR recently.
Reliance Industries' (RIL's) retail arm, Reliance Retail, is now valued at nearly twice the amount of its decades-old and lucrative oil-to-chemical (O2C) division. Bernstein's latest report on the conglomerate projects a valuation of $112 billion for its retail business, dwarfing the $57 billion valuation of its O2C division. In addition, the research firm valued Jio Platforms, the company's telecom arm, at $77 billion and the renewable energy business at $17 billion.
Profit from its retail business jumped 77 per cent to Rs 1,923 crore and that from telecom rose by 78.3 per cent to Rs 2,665 crore.
FB deal puts RIL on course to be debt-free next year; Reliance Retail biggest gainer from WhatsApp, JioMart arrangement.
Jio's adjusted gross revenue share went up by 7 percentage points in Q2FY18-19 over the previous quarter in the circles of the C category.
The DoT estimates that it will receive Rs 29,524 cr in revenue from the telecom industry in FY18, which is 38% less than the Budget revenue target of Rs 47,300 cr for FY18
Falling revenues, increased capex, and first full year of spectrum debt may make things worse
The country's largest retailer Reliance Industries on Monday announced that it will enter the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) business this year as part of its expansion plan. Addressing the 45th AGM of Reliance Industries on Monday, Reliance Retail Ventures Ltd (RRVL) Director Isha Ambani said: "This year, we will launch our FMCG goods business". The objective of this business will be to develop and deliver products and solve every Indian's daily needs, with high-quality products at affordable pricing, she said while addressing Reliance Industries' annual general meeting.
In August 2021, Nick Read, chief executive of Vodafone Plc at the time, did not mince his words while speaking about the India business in an earnings call. Replying to an analyst's question on Vodafone Idea, a venture with the Aditya Birla Group that had piled on huge debts and worrisome losses, Read described it as a highly stressed situation that "they (Vodafone Idea) are trying to navigate... "We, as a group, try to provide them as much practical support as we can, but I want to make it very clear, we are not putting any additional equity into India.''
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.
Ambani said, it will be ready for trials as soon as 5G spectrum is available and can be ready for field deployment next year.
Jio makes data on call drops public, says 121 mn calls failed in a day
Market cap touches Rs 5 lakh crore; earnings growth to spurt in FY19
Jio-BP, the fuels and mobility joint venture between Reliance Industries and UK's BP, on Thursday announced a partnership with BluSmart - India's first and largest all-electric ride-hailing platform - to set up a network of commercial large-scale EV charging stations. As part of the partnership, Jio-BP will set up these stations for passenger electric vehicles and fleets across the country, the company said in a statement. "Through this partnership, both companies will collaborate in planning, development and operation of EV charging infrastructure, at suitable locations across cities where BluSmart operates," it said.
'The whole narrative will change from TV is dying to TV-plus-digital is the future.'
But the road map of telecom will be decided by one thing: Whether Jio sticks to its ambitious plan and whether incumbents have enough financial muscle or ability to raise money every year to ensure that Jio does not reach its target, says Surajeet Das Gupta.
"Starting December 4, 2016, every new Jio user will get Jio's data, voice, video and the full bouquet of Jio applications absolutely free till March 31, 2017," Mukesh Ambani said, adding that the 'Jio Happy New Year Offer' will also be extended to existing customers on current SIMs.
'This is the Bengal story, where businesses are nurtured, dreams are realised, and legacies are built.'
Tech and startup industry bodies have again pushed back against calls by telecom operators to bring over-the-top (OTT) services under a licensing regime similar to telcos, and open them up to taxation. Ahead of public consultations on the issue later this week, the Internet & Mobile Association of India (IAMAI), Nasscom and the US India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), among others, have written to the government arguing against such efforts.
Jio's100-million subscribers target appears an uphill task in the next one month, believe analysts. Also, the existing subscribers are already witnessing slowdown in data speed thanks to the high traffic.
The Mukesh Ambani-owned company had complained to Trai about incumbents offering segmented offers to different customers
Investment by US PE firm KKR will add fire to Ambani's battle for dominance in the retail market that is also being eyed by Jeff Bezos' Amazon and Walmart's Flipkart.
The network has been built by six telcos to handle high bandwidth demands of emerging technologies and applications.
The recognition that content - video in particular - will be the next big thing in the telecom wars requires no rocket science.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio lashed out at COAI.
While JioMart is doing 250,000 orders per day, BigBasket and Amazon pantry are doing 220,000 and 150,000 orders, respectively.
The government is looking at a time frame within the first two weeks of July to kick off and complete the upcoming 5G auctions, according to discussions between officials and stakeholders. It is expected that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will give its recommendations on the base price by March, after which the necessary cabinet clearances will be given. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had earlier looked at undertaking the auction in the first quarter of 2022 but decided to push it back. Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had also said that the auctions are likely to take place in April-May.
Private equity (PE) investments in India have fallen to a 6-year low at $24.2 billion in the financial year ending March 2024. Investments via PE deals are down 47 per cent compared to FY23, when private equity deals worth $45.8 billion were signed. According to data sourced from Bloomberg, PE firms had signed record deals worth $80 billion in the financial year ending March 2022.
Debt-saddled telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd's Rs 18,000 crore follow-on offering (FPO) opened to a modest response on Thursday with just 26 per cent of shares on offer being sought by investors. Of the 1,260 crore shares on offer, 331.24 crore was subscribed on Thursday, according to information on the BSE. Qualified institutional buyers picked up 61 per cent of their 360 crore shares reserved for them while non-institutional investors sought 28 per cent out of 270 crore shares earmarked for them.
The Rs 51 per GB data versus industry norm of Rs 250-plus comes with the caveat of an upfront payment of Rs 1,498 for a year
The government is expected to outline a policy framework for artificial intelligence (AI) at the annual India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2024, beginning Tuesday, officials said. Apart from industry participation, the four-day event will feature booths from over 15 ministries showcasing how AI is being integrated into their departments.
Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) CEO Ravinder Takkar did some plain speaking. In an analyst call after its quarterly results recently, Takkar said that the main stumbling block to raising fresh capital from investors is "pricing" - telecom tariffs, in other words. Nine months ago, the telecom company's board had cleared a proposal for raising Rs 25,000 crore from investors, after the promoters made it clear that they were not ready to pump in more money. But potential investors are concerned that without clarity on tariff hikes (there have been none for more than 18 months) they might just lose their money. The lack of visibility on raising tariffs has also impelled VIL to request the Department of Telecom (DoT) for a fresh reprieve by extending the two-year moratorium on paying its spectrum instalment of Rs 8,200 crore for another year till FY23.
