After outsourcing its network management and IT operations, Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Group has given contract of its call centre operations for mobile services to four global majors in a deal, valued cumulatively at Rs 1,000 crore.
Telecom honchos Sunil Bharti Mittal, Anil Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Vittorio Colao are expected to meet IT and Communications Minister Kapil Sibal tomorrow to discuss various issues impacting the sector.
'YamaTough', the activist behind the 'Lords of Dharmaraja' hackers group, told Infosec Island, an information security Web site, 'Our goal is Bharti Mittal go off political arena and stop manipulating our government.'
The government should lower the interest rates in the long term to increase supply as a move to check inflation, which touched a three year high of 7 per cent last week, Bharti Group chairman and managing director Sunil Bharti Mittal said.
The Minister was talking to media on sidelines of a function organised by Department of Telecommunication for new version of Internet addresses, IPv6.
In a show-cause notice, the information and broadcasting ministry asked Bharti Telemedia to furnish explanation failing which the government could consider suspending the licence till such time the company obtains necessary approvals from FIPB and meet the eligibility conditions. A Bharti spokesperson said the company has complied to all licence conditions in its DTH venture and the same has been communicated to the government.
Industrial output growth rate remained flat in April.
Bharti's undersea fibre-optic cable connecting Chennai with Singapore has not been affected by the deadly tsunami waves, triggered by the massive quake off the Indonesian coast, its CMD Sunil Mittal said on Tuesday.
It's celebration time for Bharti Airtel, which last week became the third telecom brand in the world to cross the magic 100 million-subscriber mark in a single country. The gap between Airtel and its nearest competitor, Vodafone, is now about 26 million subscribers.
The company, according to industry sources, is hoping to get an FIPB approval before that. Market sources said the sales team has sounded out October 8 as the launch date. Government had earlier asked Bharti group to seek a separate FIPB approval within three months for its upcoming DTH services.
Internet giant Google will invest USD 1 billion in telecom major Bharti Airtel, which includes equity investment as well as a corpus for potential commercial agreements, to be identified and agreed on mutually agreeable terms over the course of the next five years.
UK telecom giant Vodafone has offloaded its 5.6 per cent direct stake in India's mobile leader Bharti Airtel to promoter Sunil Mittal's group for $1.6 billion, coinciding its acquisition of controlling stake in Hutch-Essar.
Telephone subscribers in the country is expected to reach 300-400 million by 2010 from 100 million currently, Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman and MD, Bharti Airtel said.
Bharti Enterprises, which had last year announced a $2.5-billion investment for its retail venture, is expected to announce its final plans, including that of opening of the first store, within the next two months.
In a dig at Jio's Rs 1,500 4G-enabled feature phone, the Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company said its smartphone would be made available for the price of a feature phone
Sunil Mittal is seeking subsidies from the Indian government to revive the dying fixed-line phones in the country. The chairman of Bharti Airtel, the leading private sector GSM service provider, has sought the removal of licence fee and service tax that are burdening the sector.
Tesco has admitted that its plan to be the first multinational supermarket retailer in India has unravelled.
Demanding a level playing field for the old operators, Bharti group chief Sunil Mittal told PTI: 'our view is that the spectrum given to us and other operators from time to time is under a policy and there is no question of any additional payment for this.'
India's second-largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday posted more than twofold year-on-year jump in its consolidated net profit for the March quarter to Rs 2,008 crore, buoyed by a lift in average revenue per user and an exceptional gain. The telco said its Q4 scorecard was backed by strong performance delivery across the portfolio and its CEO Gopal Vittal, in a statement, exuded optimism about opportunities in the coming years and Airtel being "well-poised" as a company. Airtel, which competes in the market with Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, as well as state-owned BSNL/MTNL, promised to maintain razor sharp focus on financial flexibility, optimising the capital structure and finance cost.
Bharti Walmart, the joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Walmart, the world's largest retailer, is also expected to open cash and carry stores in the South in the next 12-24 months.
Total revenue dropped by 10.5 per cent to Rs 19,634 crore in the fourth quarter of 2017-18
The police had filed charges in December against Bharti Airtel and Vodafone's India unit.
Bharti Airtel will start talks for "disengagement" from its partner Vodafone once the UK company decides on its future course of action in India.
The two also met corporate affairs minister Salman Khurshid, who asked them to keep his ministry in the loop.
While the market for satellite broadband currently is small, the potential is large as an estimated 30 per cent of the country does not have reliable terrestrial broadband services.
Bharti Enterprises on Tuesday said it expected to start its life insurance venture with French major Axa by June end.
Bharti Enterprises, the holding company of Bharti Airtel and other businesses such as insurance and retail is aiming to achieve $10 billion revenue by 2010 and become a strong conglomerate a decade later, its chairman Sunil Mittal said on Monday.
With investors seeking clarity from the market tribunal SAT on Bharti Airtel's proposed mega deal with MTN, the Sunil Mittal company today said it is still in discussion with the South African firm.
Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Group has formed a consortium with Changi Airport of Singapore (a 50:50 joint venture) to bid for the development and management of Delhi and Mumbai airports.
The meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was attended by Commerce and Industry Minister Kamal Nath and Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia. Industry leaders, including Ratan Tata, Rahul Bajaj, Mukesh Ambani and Sunil Bharti Mittal, who are members of the council, also participated in the discussions.
Kavin Bharti Mittal, son of Airtel's Sunil Mittal, speaks about why he came back to India from the UK, his new business venture, paying for mobile apps and the need for co-founder support.
Mittal said that overall, he expected that by March 2018, the "dust will settle down" for the entire industry.
Taking advantage of liberalised norms for external commercial borrowings to raise upto $500 million through the automatic route, Sunil Mittal-promoted Bharti Group is planning to tap the overseas market next fiscal.
After the transaction with Temasek, Singtel will hold 47.39 per cent in Bharti Telecom.
