The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India last week recommended that the government should auction 5 MHz of airwaves in the 1800 MHz band and companies will have to pay a minimum Rs 3,622.18 crore (Rs 36.22 billion) for every unit of spectrum.
Sigve Brekke, vice president and Asia-head of the Norway-based mobile major Telenor has played a big role in Telenor's aggressive Asian foray. Brekke spoke of his plans for Telenor's joint venture with real-estate firm Unitech.
Radia, chairperson of Vaishnavi Corporate Communications and Tata, chairman of Tata sons Limited, have been asked by the PAC to appear before it on April 5 at 11 AM and 3 PM respectively to give 'oral evidence' on the subject 'recent developments in the telecom sector including allocation of 2G and 3G spectrum'.
Despite mounting losses from its Indian operations and growing pressure from minority stakeholders back home, Norwegian telecom major Telenor said Uninor, its telecom joint venture in India, plans to raise about Rs 9,365 crore to support its expansion.
As the new owner, Airtel will take over Telenor India's spectrum, licences and operations, including its employees and customer base of 44 million.
The uniform SUC, if implemented as per recommendations made by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, will provide relief for mobile operators such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, but will increase rates for broadband wireless access spectrum holders like RJIL.
After building a subscriber base of nearly 50 million in about eight chequered years, it finally gave up as it saw itself up against a 600-pound gorilla that breezed through double that many subscribers in a fraction of that time, says N Sundaresha Subramanian.
Bharti to spend Rs 1,600 cr for spectrum payout over 10 yrs; Telenor to service its own debt.
After a two year run-in with controversies, telecom sector now looks stable and seems back on its feet with initial investment proposal of over Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) received in 2013.