Facing a penalty of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) for illegal rerouting of international calls, Reliance Infocomm is understood to have submitted its reply in the appellate telecom tribunal TDSAT justifying its position.
ADAG, Mahindra BT, L&T Infotech may team up with PEs.
Gearing up for its pan-India 4G services launch in coming months, Reliance Jio Infocomm has approached the Department of Telecom for a network test conducted along with security agencies.
Debt-ridden telecom operator Vodafone Idea has decided to defer payment of additional adjusted gross revenues of Rs 8,837 crore dues by a period of four years. The company in a late night filing on June 22, said that the DoT on June 15, has raised adjusted gross revenue (AGR) demand for additional two financial years beyond 2016-17, which were not covered under the Supreme court order on the statutory dues. Vodafone Idea (VIL) in the filing said that its board of directors "has approved the exercise of the option of deferment of the AGR related dues by a period of four years with immediate effect, in accordance with the said DoT Letter.
Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani on Monday said his company is open to joining hands with Bharti Airtel for improving telecom network for 4G services in Punjab.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday posted a 49.2 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 3,005.6 crore for the January-March quarter of 2022-23 on the back of new 4G customers and strong growth in average revenue per user (ARPU). The company had recorded a net profit of Rs 2,007.8 crore in the same period a year ago. Bharti Airtel's consolidated revenue from operations grew by 14.31 per cent to Rs 36,009 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 31,500.3 crore in the March 2022 quarter.
The tribunal accepted the government's argument that licence or spectrum is a state asset over which Aircel had no right of ownership.
From the Sensex basket, JSW Steel, Tata Steel, Power Grid, Kotak Mahindra Bank, UltraTech Cement, NTPC and Bajaj Finance were the major gainers. Tata Consultancy Services, Tech Mahindra, Maruti, Reliance Industries and Titan were among the laggards.
The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) on Wednesday received over Rs 17,873 crore from companies towards 5G spectrum dues. Nearly half the amount (Rs 8312.4 crore) was paid by Bharti Airtel, which made advance payments for four years to free up cash for future investments. Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea paid Rs 7,864 crore and Rs 1,680 crore, respectively.
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.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has seen pre-tax profit recover to pre-pandemic levels on the back of continued growth in consumer businesses, Moody's Investors Service said on Monday. The oil-to-retail-to-telecom behemoth on Friday reported a 0.7 per cent Ebitda (earnings before interest, tax and depreciation and amortisation) growth for the quarter ended December 31, 2020, compared with the corresponding quarter in the previous year. "A strong performance in digital services and retail segments underpinned the improvement in consolidated earnings, a credit positive," Moody's said commenting on the earnings. Continued growth in earnings combined with the company's strong balance sheet with zero net debt on a reported basis will keep Reliance's credit metrics strong for its Baa2 rating over the next 12-18 months, it said.
A record over Rs 1.5 lakh crore worth of 5G telecom spectrum was sold in a seven-day auction ending on Monday, which saw billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Jio emerging as the top bidder to consolidate its leadership position. Sources with direct knowledge of the matter said provisional data puts the total bids at Rs 150,173 crore. The mop-up from the 5G spectrum, capable of offering ultra-high speed mobile internet connectivity, is almost double at Rs 77,815 crore worth 4G airwaves sold last year and triple of Rs 50,968.37 crore garnered from a 3G auction in 2010.
In the third infrastructure sharing agreement between firms run by brothers Mukesh and Anil Ambani, Reliance Industries' telecom arm has agreed to use Reliance Communication Ltd's intra-city fibre network to roll out 4G services.
Reliance Jio has paid about Rs 10,700 crore to the telecom department towards outstanding amount for spectrum acquired in 2016 auction, sources said. The payment was made by Jio last week, sources added. With this, the company has made full payment with regard to spectrum bought in 2016 auction, and the outstandings now pertain to 2014, 2015 and 2021 auction.
Subash Chandra's Indian Cricket League can breathe a sigh of relief.
'It's the brazen corruption involving politicians that makes you sit up years after the event,' notes Nivedita Mookerji after reading B K Syngal's Telecom Man.
Mandarin Oriental New York, the premium luxury hotel a subsidiary of Reliance Industries is acquiring, is known for its much-in-demand ballroom, five-star spa and eating and drinking venues, including MO Lounge. Liam Neeson and Lucy Liu are among regular guests. Set up in 2003, 248-rooms-and-suites hotel towering over Central Park is an iconic luxury hotel located at 80 Columbus Circle, directly adjacent to the pristine Central Park and Columbus Circle.
Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) has written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) stating that a recent complaint against it by Bharti Airtel is a deliberate, malicious attempt at defaming RJIL's consumer-friendly tariff. RJIL has also asked the regulator to warn Airtel against 'making such frivolous complaints in the future'. The move is in response to Airtel recently requesting Trai to bring content aired through broadband under the regulatory fold and keep a check against discriminatory bundling tactics.
The government on Friday welcomed the verdict of telecom tribunal TDSAT dismissing a petition by Reliance challenging a penalty of Rs 150 crore.
The government said on Tuesday it was very clear in its stand imposing a penalty of Rs 150 crore (Rs 1.5 billion) on Reliance Infocomm for violating the licensing conditions by diverting international calls as local calls.
Reliance Mobile will launch BlackBerry Tour smartphone for its CDMA customers priced at Rs 27,990.
The case is likely to come up for hearing on Monday.
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At the close of trade, telecom stocks ended with as much as 4.3 per cent loss.
Even as regulatory focus has zeroed in on foreign e-commerce giant Amazon, a domestic retail giant has been created almost below the radar in Reliance Retail (RR), one of the most crucial businesses for the group's future. From doorstep delivery of groceries, apparels to branded jewellery, medicines, toys, furniture to high street retailing, RR's presence in the world's fourth largest consumer market is just one part of the story.
Reliance Industries' (RIL's) consumer business is expected to lead earnings growth in the Q3FY24 performance, according to analysts. While the energy business is expected to show sequential weakness, the consumer business, especially retail, is estimated to show strong growth. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate will announce its Q3FY24 financial results on Friday.
Canada-based Brookfield will acquire the Indian business of American Tower Corporation (ATC) for an enterprise value of $2 billion, a release said on Friday. The transaction is subject to regulatory approvals and expected to close in the second half of 2024. "Data Infrastructure Trust (DIT), an Infrastructure Investment Trust sponsored by an affiliate of Brookfield Asset Management, today announced the signing of an agreement with ATC to acquire 100 per cent of equity interests in American Tower's operations in India (ATC India), for an enterprise value of Rs 16,500 crore ($2 billion) which is subject to pre-closing terms as per the securities purchase agreement," it said.
India's first auction of 5G spectrum, that powers ultra-high data speeds, is currently underway with a total of 72 GHz (gigahertz) of radiowaves worth at least Rs 4.3 lakh crore up for bidding. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and a unit of billionaire Gautam Adani's flagship Adani Enterprises are in the race to bid for 5G spectrum, that offers speeds about 10 times faster than 4G, lag-free connectivity, and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time. In addition to powering ultra-low latency connections, which allow downloading full-length high-quality video or movie to a mobile device in a matter of seconds (even in crowded areas), Fifth Generation or 5G would enable solutions such as e-health, connected vehicles, more-immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming among others.
Despite low tariffs, voice usage is not growing.
43 rounds of bidding has taken place.
Given the escalating cost of doing business, the revenue opportunity is decreasing and consolidation is an inevitable part of the industry.
Among the Sensex firms, Kotak Bank, PowerGrid, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, PowerGrid were the major gainers. HUL, TCS, M&M, IndusInd Bank, HCL Tech were among the losers.
According to documents accessed by Business Standard, RIL increased its direct stake in Jio to 98.9 per cent as on March this year by pumping more capital into the company.
Unlike Reliance Jio's focus on 4G, it plans to segment the data market based on device prices and spectrum.
At present 100% FDI is allowed, of which up to 49% investment in a company can be done through the automatic route
Bharti Airtel on Friday announced the closure of its agreement with Reliance Jio Infocomm to transfer the 'Right to Use' of Airtel's 800 MHz spectrum in three circles to Jio. Airtel said it has received Rs 1,004.8 crore (net of tax) from Jio for the proposed transfer.
From the 30 Sensex pack, State Bank of India, Mahindra & Mahindra, Bharti Airtel, Titan, HDFC Bank, IndusInd Bank, Axis Bank and Bajaj Finance were the biggest laggards. JSW Steel, Tech Mahindra, Larsen & Toubro, Hindustan Unilever, HCL Technologies and Reliance Industries were among the gainers from the pack.
All directors, key officials, and shareholder speakers will be visible and audible and thousands of shareholders, including those from the US, UK, Canada UAE, Japan, HongKong, Singapore, Malaysia, and Australia, will be able to post their questions and eVote on resolutions.
