BK Modi-promoted Spice Group and British Virgin Mobile have bid for MTNL's franchise deals to offer 3G services in Mumbai and Delhi.
While smart boys like the Ruias of Essar, Ajay Piramal, Max India promoter Analjit Singh laughed all the way to the bank, the Tatas, Anil Ambani, Malaysian tycoon T Ananda Krishna of Maxis (which invested in Aircel), Sistema, and Norway's Telenor burnt their fingers, notes Surajeet Das Gupta.
MobileFirst an alliance of BPL Mobile, Escotel, RPG Cellular and Spice Telecom announced on Saturday new cellular tariff for Plan-399 involving a rate of rupee one for local cell-to-cell outgoing call.\n\n
There are rumours that Ajay Singh who previously headed SpiceJet may get an investor to bail out the airline of dire consequences.
Idea Cellular, the Aditya Birla group firm that is on the verge of taking over Spice Communications by buying out B K Modi's 41 per cent stake, is sounding out its bankers to raise funds to upgrade in the struggling telecom operator's network and technology.
Trai has recommended cancellation of 74 licences, including Unitech Wireless's 8, Aircel/Dishnet's 7, Etisalat DB's 2, Videocon's 4, Spice's 3, Vodafone's 1, among others.
The Supreme Court in February, 2012 had quashed 122 2G licences.
A healthy growth in India's services segments has helped the country's total exports and imports of goods and services to cross the $800 billion mark during the first half of 2023, despite a slowdown in global demand, think tank GTRI said in a report on Monday. According to the analysis of the Global Trade Research Initiative (GTRI), exports of goods and services rose by 1.5 per cent to $385.4 billion during January-June this year, as against $379.5 billion in January-June 2022. Imports, however, dipped by 5.9 per cent to $415.5 billion during the six months of this year, as against $441.7 billion in January-June 2022.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your stock market queries.
Concerned over mobile signals crossing the international border, the department of telecom is planning to take action against telecom operators
As the Tata group inches closer to taking over Air India in January 2022, the $242-billion conglomerate will also inherit a stake in Kerala's Cochin airport. The Tatas would become the only airline to have an operational stake in a major Indian airport. The airport is a strategic hub connecting India to Middle East nations - home to the largest share of Indian migrant workers. In addition to Air India and Air India Express, private carrier Indigo also uses Cochin to ferry the lucrative 'Malayali Gulf traffic' to multiple locations like Jeddah, Riyadh, Sharjah, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Doha, Kuwait and Bahrain, among others. According to regulatory filings, Air India has a three per cent stake in Cochin International Airport.
Domestic brokerage Sharekhan's last month's analysis of buy and sell transactions by mutual funds shows that the fund houses purchased stocks from sectors such as infrastructure, IT, telecom and healthcare, while offloading shares from oil and gas and banking sectors. Domestic mutual funds are lapping up the buying opportunity present in the bear gripped stock market and made net purchases worth Rs 3,179 crore (Rs 31.79 billion) in equities in June.
Ajit Mishra, vice president, Research, Religare Broking, answers your queries.
At present, there is no direct air connectivity between India and Myanmar.
Taking the government head on, four GSM mobile operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Spice -- have decided to "unitedly" approach the Delhi High Court against telecom tribunal TDSAT's interim order not to stay the spectrum allocation process.
The company will start selling the Rs 800-phone to Asian, African and South Amercian consumers from next month.
About 1.2 crore passengers flew in November compared to 1.1 crore in October. While the industry opinion is divided over the sustainability of unprofitable growth, which is primarily led by low fare, some described it as the resilience of air travel against the economic slump.
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.
Denying any breach of merger and acquisition (M&A) norms, Aditya Birla group firm Idea Cellular on Tuesday said the company's merger with Spice Communications was approved by court and consummated with the full knowledge of the Department of Telecom.
Most India brands have started offering 3G-enabled phones with a starting price of about Rs 4,000.
Hemant Kanoria tells Niraj Bhatt why understanding the dynamics of the borrower's business is critical for the lender.
Maran's penchant for taking risks was visible last year again when he acquired Indian Premier League's Hyderabad cricket franchisee and named it Sun Risers.
Young people have come to believe in these start-ups and their dream to change the world.
In the last two years, several Indian companies have ventured into Singapore by acquiring small and medium companies at low prices.
Amid tight security and an altercation with HFCL chief Mahendra Nahata at Sanchar Bhawan, headquarters of the Department of Telecom, nine companies among 45 applicants were offered letters of intent (LoIs) for unified access service licenses (UASL).
Going by application dates, companies like Spice, Birla-promoted Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications (through Swan and Cheetah) and Hindustan Futuristic are in the lead for licences in different circles. The only new player in the list is the little-known ByCell.Several incumbents like Idea Cellular, Maxis-Aircell, owned by a Malaysian promoter, and Vodafone-Essar lead the list of applicants for initial spectrum allocation since they already hold licences.
A liberalised spectrum allows operators to use any technology to deliver services like 3G and 4G.
Clearly, the mobile handset market is buzzing with new branded retail chains such as Reliance and Aditya Birla Group entering the fray and the existing chains expanding their foorprint. Take Pantaloon Retail's JV with Axiom of Dubai, for instance. The company is re-branding its standalone retail chain Mport to Axiom stores, which is among the largest telecom products chain in West Asia.
Telecom regulator Trai has initiated action against cellular operators including Bharti, Idea and Hutchison for defying its order on selective blocking of calls originating and terminating in some basic service operators' networks.
Analysts say the Sun Network's fundamentals may be sound but the troubles faced by Maran have caused a lot of volatility.
Besides malls and high-street stores, there's a rush of discounts while you are flying or holidaying in fancy hotels.
Telecom stocks fell after Mukesh Ambani extended Reliance Jio's free offers till March 2017.
The 21-day coronavirus lockdown in force since Wednesday has triggered a mass exodus of migrant workers across the country since the last few days.
"If telecom changed the game for how business was done in India, then we need 20 more of those systemic game-changers to take us to the next level," Ronnie Screwvala tells Pavan Lall.
Investors will remain cautious ahead of F&O expiry.
This merger, Bhupesh Bhandari believes, will be watched keenly by management gurus the world over.
Naresh Goyal, after being ousted with his wife from the board last week, and with his shareholding halved to 25 per cent, can still make a comeback by partnering a new investor and win back majority control.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances