Tata Sons Ltd, the holding company of the $150 billion Tata group, may be forced to infuse fresh capital into its loss-making telecom arm, Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL). This is because TTSL has to pay Rs 19,256 crore adjusted gross revenue (AGR) along with other dues to the central government by March 2026.
The deal between Bharti group and Tata Teleservices is yet another example of how swiftly things can change in business.
Tata Teleservices Ltd on Wednesday launched a new product 'Don't Stop Mobile' across 20 circles allowing prepaid customers to make free outgoing calls for a period of two years to any Tata Indicom mobile or Tata Indicom fixed phone within the state.
The clearances are for three proposals submitted to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board by Bharti Telemedia, which offers direct-to-home television services, Tata Teleservices, in which Japan's DoCoMo has picked up 27.3 per cent equity, and SKR BPO Services, which has made downstream investments in Sparsh BPO. Press notes 2 and 4, issued in February this year, changed the way indirect foreign equity is treated while computing the total foreign investment.
Indian telecommunications companies are ringing louder. Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications are among the big league of gloal telecom companies.
Tata Teleservices has announced plans to launch 3G services by Diwali, while Vodafone has said it will launch the services by early 2011.
Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications have said that they had been denied extra spectrum even as the old GSM operators like Bharti, Vodafone and Idea were been allocated excess spectrum in many circles.
The reported buyback of Temasek's 20 per cent stake in Tata Play by Tata Sons will be the third instance of Tata Group providing an exit to a foreign partner in recent years. In 2018, Tata Sons paid $1.27 billion to DoCoMo to buy back 26 per cent of the group's telecommunication venture, Tata Teleservices. This was followed by Tata Sons acquiring AirAsia Berhad's 49 per cent stake in AirAsia India in two tranches to make it a wholly owned subsidiary.
Funds will be raised via non-cumulative preference shares issued to Tata Sons on rights basis
Bharti Airtel on Wednesday said it will launch its third-generation (3G) mobile services 'very soon'.
New customer additions by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel pushed the Indian telecom subscriber base past 120.5 crore in June, according to a Trai report released on Tuesday. The wireless subscriber base grew marginally to over 117 crore and wireline connections in the country increased to 3.51 crore in June from 116.89 crore and 3.47 crore, respectively, in May, as per data released in Trai's subscriber report for June.
TTSL is now behind only Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone, the company said in a statement.
Ending a month-long stalemate over interconnectivity, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Thursday directed Bharti to allow its network for the calls originating from Tata Teleservices' wireless in loop-based limited mobile services.
After a long wait, Tata Teleservices on Thursday launched the premium Blackberry mobile services that offers customers e-mail, SMS messaging and Internet-based applications.
After Vodafone Idea, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) on Tuesday said it will opt for conversion of the interest amount on AGR dues into equity and post conversion, the government's holding in the company is expected to be around 9.5 per cent. The announcement of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) came within hours of Voda Idea also deciding to opt for converting the interest amount on AGR dues into government equity. In a filing to the BSE, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) said Net Present Value or NPV of interest is expected to be nearly Rs 850 crore as per the company's estimates, subject to confirmation by the Department of Telecom (DoT).
The group began to outperform the broader market only with the onset of the pandemic in March 2020 while earlier it was largely keeping pace with the Sensex. The group's market cap is up 164.4 per cent since the end of March 2020 against a 105 per cent rally in the Sensex.
Firm makes Rs 4,858-crore loss on Rs 10,799-crore income.
Corporate giant Tatas on Tuesday asked the government to seek surrender of excess spectrum lying with GSM operators, a line being aggressively pursued by Reliance Communications chief Anil Ambani. With this, the top two CDMA players have joined forces against GSM operators like Bharti and Vodafone to seek return of spectrum beyond the contractual amount of 6.2 Mhz.
Spectrum refers to the radio frequencies that enable wireless communication. It has been the source of a bitter dispute between mobile operators of the rival GSM and CDMA technologies. In its petition, Tata Teleservices has also demanded immediate allocation of spectrum that is under the contractual obligation in areas in which it has fulfilled its subscriber base criterion.
But COAI secretary general Rajan Mathew sought to deflect the issue saying "it is our internal matter and is not for public discourse. So I will not comment."
Sources at the department of telecommunications confirmed that Bharti Airtel has submitted application to bid for airwaves frequencies at pan-India level.
Govt says there is enough spectrum, telcos differ
Tata Group had hinted at combining its enterprise business with Tata Communications and its fixed-line and broadband businesses with Tata Sky.
Vodafone Idea on Monday paid Rs 2,500 crore to DoT and promised to pay another Rs 1,000 crore before the end of the week.
Union Communications and IT Minister A Raja has expressed his interest in bringing down national roaming rates to zero, further cutting international roaming rates and favouring technology neutrality in the country.
The TDSAT bench, headed by its chairman Justice S B Sinha, asked Bharti Airtel to file a short reply by Tuesday over Asergis's allegations.
The CAG report, tabled in Parliament, states the interest on the short payment stood at Rs 1,052.13 crore for the period up to March 2016.
The minister said the companies have given representation which is being examined by the DoT before taking a final decision.
During a hearing before the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission (MRTPC) last month Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, and government-run BSNL and MTNL agreed to submit the undertaking.
The government on Tuesday invited financial bids from all the nine applicants, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Tata Teleservices and RCom, who had applied for participating in 3G spectrum auction.
Airtel, Vodafone-Essar favour delinking; Reliance, Tata oppose.
The company wants to woo post-paid customers and rent out its assets to cut debt.
Firms to pay Rs 24,700 cr if spectrum formula is accepted.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board has made it clear that Press Notes 2 and 4 issued in February 2009, which changed the way indirect foreign equity would be treated in calculating foreign investment levels in Indian corporations, cannot take effect retrospectively for proposals before the board.
The DoT is conducting a special audit on companies that have multiple licences -- mobile, international long distance, domestic long distance and internet service provider among others. Contractor, Nayak & Kishnadwala has been appointed to examine the books of Bharti Airtel, while S K Mehta & Co will check Vodafone-Essar's accounts. Varma & Varma has been appointed as auditors for Tata Teleservices, while Chhajed & Doshi will examine the books of Idea Cellular.
The books of these companies had come under a cloud after it was alleged that many of them had not been paying the goverment's share of revenue by showing the revenue earned under other categories. Under a suggestion of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, a special audit of all the integrated telecom companies will be undertaken once in 3-5 years.
On 60th Independence Day, it is bonanza time for telecom subscribers with operators rolling out a range of services.
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