Russia will acquire 19.8 per cent stake in Sistema Shyam Teleservices Ltd, a joint venture between Sistema of Russia and Indian entity Shyam Group, for $676 million (around Rs 3,150 crore).
Commenting on the development, Rajiv Mehrotra, Chairman of Shyam Group, told PTI: "We are delighted that the government has opened up the way for new telecom players to operate telecom services as soon as possible and this is a major step towards offering cost-effective mobile services." Russian conglomerate has already announced up to $5 billion (Rs 20,000 crore) investment in the Indian telecom sector.
Won't put in more money, irrespective of SC decision on curative petition.
Action is hotting up in the telecom space, with Russian giant Sistema in preliminary discussions with Aircel to pick up an equity stake.
Shyam's application comes even as real estate major DLF Ltd confirmed on Wednesday that it will apply for telecom licences by Friday, the fourth real estate company to do so in the recent past.
The discussions are 'indicative and non-binding' in nature.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday slashed termination charges by 33 per cent.
The auction was shunned by all other companies.
Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd is a venture involving equity participation by Sistema of Russia, the Russian Federation and the Shyam Group of India.
The government on Tuesday said it has not received any application for 2G spectrum auction except that of Sistema Shyam Teleservices that will bid for CDMA spectrum.
The rates will come into effect from May 15 and users will be able to avail these lower rates for a period of one month, SSTL -- a joint venture between Russia-based Sistema and India's Shyam Group -- said.
Telenor of Norway and Sistema of Russia - on Friday asserted that they would take legal measures.
The FIPB, headed by Finance Secretary Arvind Mayaram, at its meeting on Tuesday considered 35 proposals.
The Department of Telecom has worked out a one-time spectrum charge of over Rs 2,060 crore to be levied from operators for the period they remained in business after their licences were cancelled in February last year, sources said.
The government has approved 16 foreign direct investment proposals, including that of Russia telecom firm Sistema and Italian fashion retailer Dolce & Gobbana, envisaging a total inflow of Rs 647.48 crore (Rs 6.47 billion).
SSTL is the second operator after Vodafone that has approached FIPB for raising FDI limit.
The telecom industry is moving towards a five-plus one model.
The script was triggered by today's kids who seem so comfortable with gadgets and the Internet right from infancy.
The shrinkage of MTS operations has helped Tata Tele's wireless net service brand to gain traction.
SSTL, whose 21 licences are among those cancelled by the Supreme Court in the 2G spectrum case, offers CDMA telephony services under the MTS brand name.
Sistema Shyam Teleservices on Wednesday said that it has no plans to acquire any telecom service provider and it will wait for the outcome of its curative petition filed before the Supreme Court.
Govt petition separated from others, to be heard in open court on Apr 13
The second round of auction is underway and it is expected that it will end by the third round, which could be the shortest online sale of radiowaves in terms of time consumed.
On the back of this, leading GSM incumbent Bharti Airtel's shares opened on a bullish note and then gained further ground and touched an early high of Rs 334.55 on the BSE, higher by 8.96 per cent from its previous closing price.
Continuing its probe in the 2G spectrum allocation scam, the Central Bureau of Investigation questioned two top telecom honchos besides close aides of former Telecom Minister A Raja, including his brother Kalia Perumal. The agency quizzed chief executive officer of Loop Telecom Sandip Basu and chairman of Sistema Shyam Teleservices Rajiv Mehrotra in connection with the scam, official sources said.
As technology has progressed, the new generation technology has compressed the time to analyse data from a few days to a few minutes, thus providing access to information to business leaders on real-time basis.
High-value post-paid subscribers are more likely to use number portability in India where the market is dominated by pre-paid subscribers who look for the cheapest service.
Speaking to reporters after signing up with Sistema Shyam Teleservices (which offers phone services under the 'MTS' brand) to offer e-recharge services at 50 post offices here, Chennai City Region post master general M S Ramanujan said DoP has over 1,50,000 points of presence and about 25,000 offices across the country, a majority of which are located in the rural parts of the country.
Jio's disruptive strategy, including free voice services and data at throwaway rates, apart from offering all services free for six months, triggered a consolidation in the telecom sector.
The big beneficiaries of this move will be the big three -- Bharti, Vodafone and Idea.
The telephone subscriber base was 996.49 million at the end of March.
The interconnection charge has been reduced.
Telecom companies that bought spectrum in the 2G auction of November last year would lose around Rs 4,000 crore
The government has allocated spectrum to Vodafone in all 14 service areas, where the telecom major won in November 2012 auction for Rs 1,127.94 crore (Rs 11,27 billion).
Spectrum trading will happen in 9 circles.
The total number of telephone connections in the country crossed the record one billion mark in May, bolstered by growth in number of mobile users.
The Unified Licence for all 22 Service Areas across India will make the company the first telecom operator in the country to get pan India Unified Licence, the company said in a statement.
A crown of thorns awaits the next telecom minister at Sanchar Bhawan as the new incumbent will have to address a host of tricky issues like industry infighting, tariffs and improving financial health of the Rs 2.3 lakh crore industry.
Under the UASL norms, spectrum is linked to licences, and a particular band of radio wave is restricted to be used in a particular technology
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telcom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) have opposed the proposal to compensate consumers.
