The investigating agency wants to ascertain the actual purpose of the deal.
At the end of trade on the BSE, RIL's market capitalisation was Rs 7,14,668.54 crore, while India's largest IT firm by revenue TCS slipped to the second spot with a valuation of Rs 7,06,292.61 crore.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has slapped a penalty of Rs 2,000 crore on Vodafone Idea and Rs 1,050 crore on Bharti Airtel based on sector regulator Trai's recommendation five years ago, according to sources. The DoT has given three weeks time to the telecom operators to pay the penalty, a source said while sharing the content of the demand notice served to the companies on Thursday. When contacted Bharti Airtel spokesperson said, "We are deeply disappointed with the arbitrary and unfair demand based on Trai recommendations of 2016 relating to provisions of point of interconnect to a new operator.
DoT and the company have not done anything that breached the guidelines mentioned in the notice inviting applications for the auction of the BWA spectrum in 2010, it stated in a reply to CAG's draft audit report.
At the heart of one of the biggest transformations in India's corporate history lies a plan to offer super-fast broadband services.
Migration to the unified licence regime could cost Reliance upto Rs 1,000 crore and Tatas Rs 500 crore, according to estimates being worked out by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
Jio is targeting to differentiate its services via superior data and an associated ecosystem of content.
Indian telecom operators have surpassed the three- year 5G network rollout target given to them within six months and now the government is making efforts to enhance adoption of 5G applications across various key segments, a senior government official said in Barcelona. Department of Telecom Additional Secretary VL Kantha Rao told PTI at "India Evening" event on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress 2023 that the government has hosted over 50 companies at the India pavilion and the delegation is here to showcase indigenously-developed 4G and 5G technology stack. "When the spectrum was allocated to telecom service providers for 5G rollout, we gave a minimum rollout obligation saying that within one year they have to cover a few cities within three years, a few towns and so on and so forth.
While Jio MF will undoubtedly grow in size, it will have to cross multiple hurdles even to emerge as the market leader, observes Debashis Basu.
Operators continued aggressive bidding in 900 MHz band
With Mukesh Ambani taking over Network 18, the space for disseminating a diverse range of views could shrink, feels Paranjoy Guha Thakurta.
The accused had also requested the court to take on record the written answers afresh.
Among the Sensex firms, Wipro, Axis Bank, Titan, UltraTech Cement and HDFC Bank, HDFC, HCL Tech and Reliance were the gainers.
Benchmark indices fell on Monday with the BSE Sensex declining 306 points, mainly dragged down by Reliance Industries. Foreign funds outflow also added to the overall bearish trend in equities on Monday. The 30-share BSE benchmark fell 306.01 points or 0.55 per cent to settle at 55,766.22. During the day, it declined 535.15 points or 0.95 per cent to 55,537.08. The broader NSE Nifty dipped 88.45 points or 0.53 per cent to 16,631.
We asked colleagues, present and past, to reflect on a man who has made such a difference to their lives and careers. Here it is then, a rich collection of memories that offer enchanting glimpses of the enigmatic Ajit Balakrishnan.
India's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio gained 17.6 lakh mobile subscribers in October 2021 while market rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea lost a cumulative 14.5 lakh users during the month, according to the latest data released by TRAI on Monday. Bharti Airtel lost 4.89 lakh mobile users in October, while Vodafone Idea lost 9.64 lakh subscribers during the reported period. Reliance Jio's mobile subscriber base surged to 42.65 crore in October, as the telco added 17.61 lakh mobile users in the month, according to data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).
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.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B ministry) may launch its review of the government's plan to potentially reserve the crucial C-band of radio frequencies for 5G and 6G telecommunication (telecom) use, said officials. While the incumbent broadcasting operators have warned that the plan will leave "precious little spectrum" for broadcasting services, telecom service providers (TSPs) have pressed hard for getting access to the C-band. In multiple letters to the I&B ministry over the past month, the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) has said the industry would be left with precious little spectrum for broadcasting services if the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) further allocates the scant C-band for 5G.
Reliance Infocomm activated over 250,000 connections within two days of rolling out its Monsoon Hungama scheme on Wednesday.
A special court on Thursday acquitted all accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam cases. The scam relates to the granting of 2G spectrum licence allocations in 2007-08 which caused, according to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Here is a detailed timeline of how the case came to light and how it has progressed over the years:
Sensex ended above 26,000 led by telecom shares amid TRAI's spectrum sharing norms.
Reliance Communications will be investing around Rs 15,000 crore (Rs 150 billion) to set up and install an additional 15,000 base transceiver stations in the country.
A Delhi court on Saturday issued fresh summons to Reliance ADA Group Chairman Anil Ambani and his wife Tina Ambani to appear as prosecution witnesses before it next month in the 2G spectrum allocation case.
Capital expenditure by Indian companies is likely to see an uptick in the upcoming quarters as capacity utilisation has surpassed the critical threshold of 75 per cent, and numerous companies have deleveraged their balance sheets, according to analysts. The first quarter of the current financial year has shown improved profitability, driven by a decrease in input prices. This, according to analysts at Care Ratings, should stimulate a revival in the private capex cycle.
Ambani's $15 bn bet will upend Indian telecom
Need for much more investment; sector would like govt help
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.
CBI on Monday submitted a list of five witnesses, including Anil Ambani, who are scheduled to be called for recording of their statements before the court.
Reliance Industries on Friday reported more than doubling of its March quarter net profit to Rs 13,227 crore as improvement in petrochemical and consumer business countered continued weakness in refining business.
Dixon Technologies right now is a beehive of activity. It is building a new facility in Noida to make 1.3 million laptops for Taiwanese PC maker Acer. The facility must be up and running in four months. The pace of activity will only increase. Last week Dixon won a similar contract from Lenovo, the Chinese personal computer maker and the third largest information technology (IT) hardware brand in India, to assemble laptops and notebooks. Though the clientele in these two cases is Taiwanese and Chinese, Dixon is a company reaching for the stars with its feet planted firmly in the Indian government's policy.
Reliance Industries Limited on Wednesday became the first Indian company to hit the Rs 19 lakh crore market valuation mark following a rally in its share price. The market heavyweight stock jumped 1.85 per cent to its record high of Rs 2,827.10 on the BSE. Following the gain in the share price, the company's market valuation jumped to Rs 19,12,814 crore in morning trade on the BSE.
The Department of Telecom on Tuesday approved applications of telecom companies -- Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and MTNL -- for conducting 5G trials but none of them will be using technologies of Chinese entities. The list of telecom gear makers approved for trials include Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, C-DOT and Reliance Jio's indigenously developed technologies.
Equity benchmark indices Sensex and Nifty buckled under selling pressure after a nine-session rally on Monday, as massive sell-off in IT, tech and telecom counters unnerved investors.
India's first auction of telecom spectrum in five years ended on Tuesday with Rs 77,814.80 crore of airwaves being bought, mostly by billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio. Over 2,250 MHz of spectrum, that carry telecom signals, in seven bands worth nearly Rs 4 lakh crore at the reserve or start price, was offered for bidding in the auction that began on Monday. Telecom secretary Anshu Prakash said 855.60 MHz of spectrum was bought for Rs 77,814.80 crore in the two-day auction.
Balwa, who is accused along with 16 others in the case, claimed that he cannot be prosecuted for pushing back Tata in the race as the firm was never in the race to get the 2G spectrum licence
IndusInd Bank was the biggest loser in the Sensex pack, shedding nearly 2 per cent, followed by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Industries, HDFC twins, SBI, HUL, Tata Motors, Nestle India and Axis Bank. On the other hand, Asian Paints, Tata Steel, Titan and L&T were among the gainers, rising up to 3.03 per cent.
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.
