Speculations are rife in the local media about MTN's next move after the failure of talks with two Indian entities RCOM and Bharti Airtel for a possible merger, with some saying that the South African telecom major might now target other telecom operators from India.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is in the process of clarifying the procedure for accounting of these peculiar transactions for which there is no precedence."We will issue explanations and clarifications as to how to record certain transactions which are innovative in nature," ICAI President Ved Jain told PTI.
To end possibility of forming cartels in the telecom sector, new telecom licences are proposed to come with a clause that will bar service providers from holding either direct or indirect stake in other telecom companies providing services in the same area.
Auto major Tata Engineering has raised $90 million with a greenshoe option of $10 million by issuing foreign currency convertible bonds.
Though Google's investment is minuscule and will not move the needle, it will attract other investors to the company and be a morale booster. Pursuing Vodafone Idea would potentially pit Google against Facebook and an increasingly dominant Jio.
The operators believe that the industry is not ready for these services, even though such plans are good for users in Singapore. The service charges in the country are already lowest in the world and will not slide further for sometime. Moreover, this is also against the existing practice of an operator trying to match every scheme launched by competitors.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Friday said it has signed an agreement to buy Vodafone's 4.7 per cent stake in Indus Towers on the condition that the proceeds will be used for investment in Vodafone Idea and clearing its dues towards the mobile tower company. Debt-ridden Vodafone Idea (VIL) has been unable to pay dues to Indus Towers and both VIL and promoter Vodafone have proposed a payment plan to clear the outstanding amount by July 15. In the meantime, VIL has committed to pay certain minimum amount each month to Indus Towers.
India's largest truck-maker, Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co Ltd, said on Monday its vehicle sales in January in the domestic market jumped 29 per cent from a year earlier to 23,316 units.\n\n\n\n
Chargesheets will be filed against former telecom minister A Raja and two companies by March 31 for their alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation case, the Central Bureau of Investigation told the Supreme Court on Wednesday, which asked the agency to appoint a suitable senior advocate as special public prosecutor in the trial.
Sibal discussed issues ranging from spectrum sharing, merger and acquisition, annual spectrum usage charge and rising disputes among the telecom firms.
he meeting is part of Sibal's efforts to achieve the 100-day plan for reforms in the telecoms sector in consultation with the industry.
The government has collected over Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) in penalties from new telecom service providers that failed to roll-out their networks within the stipulated timeframe after getting licences and spectrum.
According to reports, CAG has sought details from the department of telecommunication on the total available spectrum in the country and how much has been allocated to private telecom operators from 2000 onward and at what value.
TRAI today made it mandatory for telecom operators to compensate consumers by one rupee for call drops with effect from January 1, 2016.
Facebook has over 600 million users worldwide while Twitter has slightly over 175 million users with 95 million tweets daily.
New operators, including Uninor, MTS, STel, Etisalat DB and Videocon, which were given unified access service (UAS) licences in 2008, have together captured 14 per cent of the incremental share in addition of new subscribers over the last one year.
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.
The nationwide implementation will increase churn of customers, shoot-up the customer acquisition and retention costs, and lower the average revenue per user as competitive tariff plans will have to be offered, the agency said in a note.
Tensions between private telecom players and the government ratcheted up a notch after it was discovered that state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was given additional spectrum of up to 10 MHz for GSM technology services in over 16 circles even as private competitors have been waiting to be allotted spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications since December 2006.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has announced that it would launch commercial 4G services in 6 to 8 weeks.
Supreme Court had on October 24 upheld government contention that non-core revenue in telecoms groups should be included in adjusted gross revenue. According to DoT's calculations, Bharti Airtel faces a liability of around Rs 42,000 crore after including licence fees and spectrum usage charges while Vodafone-Idea may have to pay about Rs 40,000 crore.
Telecom companies (Airtel, Vodafone, ABNL-via Idea Cellular), which enjoy larger reach, appear to be better placed among the key companies bagging payments bank licences.
Indian telecom companies are investing over Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) in 2007-08 to finance a massive expansion of their mobile networks, infrastructure and subscriber numbers.
The companies are looking at tapping solar power, wind energy and bio-fuels, including fish and vegetable oil, to run base transceiver systems in areas with poor power supply.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman J S Sarma said his recommendation to tweak the existing norms for mergers and acquisitions aims to prevent the union of two big companies or a big and a medium-sized operator, but it provides enough scope for mergers between others.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to go ahead with its outgoing Director A P Singh's view on the prosecution of telecom companies, their officials and public servants on the allocation of excess 2G spectrum during the National Democratic Alliance regime when late Pramod Mahajan was the telecom minister.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have demanded allocation of a part of CDMA spectrum in 800 Mhz band for GSM services.
The government has asked the mobile operators to give self certificates stating that radiations emitted by their towers are not harmful for human health, else face penalty as per prescribed norms.
The government is concerned about the spyware and malware associated with imported telecom gear. India had demanded that global telecom gear makers place source codes and design elements in an escrow account.
Aircel executives said the company could offer value to big boys like Airtel or Jio as a low-end mobile services brand
Bharti Airtel's fund raising is expected to strengthen its competitive positioning in the market and provide the telco with the necessary ammunition for aggressive 5G rollout, analysts said. The capital raising announcement, though unexpected and surprising, would enable Airtel to enhance its market share and provides it wherewithal to make faster investment in a scenario India moves to a two-player market earlier than expected, some analysts felt. Bharti Airtel's board on Sunday approved raising up to Rs 21,000 crore by way of rights issue at a price of Rs 535 per share.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday said the mobile phone operators must move from voice-based revenue model and customers should gradually be charged only for data services and not for making calls.
Although the industry is disappointed with the government decision not to lower spectrum prices at a time telcos are saddled with over Rs 4-trillion debt and an estimated Rs 1.43-trillion licence fee dues, the DCC has relaxed the payment structure to offer some relief to the financially stressed sector.
Spectrum qualifies for the infrastructure criteria, say ministry officials.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde took note of the submissions by a battery of senior lawyers including A M Singhvi and C A Sundaram and said it will list the fresh pleas "sometime in next week" before the same bench which had heard the earlier petition in the high-stake matter.
The pricing of 2G and 3G spectrum continues to haunt telecom companies.
Buoyant stock markets and booming telecom sector appear to have generated some interest among global equity players with Blackstone and Texas Pacific approaching Hutchison to buy stake in its India venture but the move could face hurdles.
China on Thursday amended a law on guarding state secrets that makes it mandatory on Internet and telecommunications companies to inform on customers who discuss state secrets.
Action is hotting up in the telecom space, with Russian giant Sistema in preliminary discussions with Aircel to pick up an equity stake.
