The decision of the Telecom Commission to approve in-flight connectivity won't just bring cheer to the chat-friendly passengers, but even more to the telecom industry facing severe financial stress, says Nivedita Mookerji.
Sunil Mittal-owned Bharti Airtel had acquired 70 per cent stake in Warid Telecom of Bangladesh for $300 million (about Rs 1,363 crore) earlier this year.
Industry experts have mixed reactions on the results: While some are happy that no company has spent around Rs 16,750 crore (Rs 167.50 billion) for a pan-India licence, some lament that lack of coverage will result in long-term competitive disadvantage.
The company has been designated as the official telecom service provider for Commonwealth Games 2010, to be held in Delhi, and it has already received Rs 182 crore (Rs 1.82 billion) from the government for providing infrastructure.
According to software company Mavernir, the new virtualised networks would lead to a saving of 40 per cent in capex and 34 per cent in terms of lower operations cost for operators.
If it happens, this would mean the largest spectrum auction in terms of amount with over 7,000 Mhz going up for sale across eight bands
Bombay High Court had earlier dismissed a petition filed by Vodafone and ruled that the tax office had jurisdiction to tax its 2007 deal.
An application by MTN to the Johannesburg Securities Exchange to suspend trading in its shares just 20 minutes before it put out a short statement which said Bharti and MTN had agreed mutually not to proceed with the transaction also surprised analysts.
Bharti chairman Sunil Mittal MTN group president and CEO Phuthuma Nhlek had met Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee on Monday. The two telecom majors extended the deadline for exclusive talks for their proposed $23-billion deal to the end of next month recently.
Tata Motors subsidiary Telco Construction Equipment Company Ltd (Telcon) has opposed a proposal to the Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) from John Deere for a joint venture with Ashok Leyland to distribute and market its construction equipment in India.
Bharti Global is planning to put up more satellites and has set a stiff deadline to launch commercial Internet services by October in the UK, Alaska, northern Russia and northern Europe.
Analysts believe as operators roll out 3G services by next year, the telecom infrastructure and mobile value added services will see more PE deals materialising in the sector.
A look at the top tweets from your favourite Bollywood celebrities.
Earlier in the day, Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, who was heading the high-level committee to monitor vacation of spectrum by the defence forces, said revenues would get preference to timing for 3G auction.
'The announcement has come too late. This should have been done years ago.'
Need for much more investment; sector would like govt help
Reports by CAG earlier on the 2008 telecom licence scam had resulted in the cancellation of 122 licences.
In view of the foreign investment that would come into Bharti Airtel via the proposed share-swap and cash transaction arrangement, the finance ministry has asked DoT to ascertain more specific contents of the deal and advise the ministry on the same. In its letter, DEA has also said that the transaction would need to adhere to the sectoral cap as per the FDI policy as also specific telecom sector regulations.
Footfalls will invariably come down to a trickle even after lockdown restrictions go away, and the only way to prevent someone else from poaching your consumer is to go down to the consumer herself. Consumers will prefer products and services to be delivered to their doorstep, hygienically and safely.
The operating profit growth rate of mobile service providers is expected to double in next two years buoyed by increase in call rates and clarity in policy, credit rating agency CRISIL has said.
Essar group, which is buying out the Uganda and Congo assets of Warid Telecom -- a joint venture between the Abu Dhabi Group and Singtel and is present in Kenya, has also reportedly been sounded out by Zain shareholders. A company spokesperson, however, declined to comment on the issue.
Trai wants to prevent accidental activation of such services.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) today directed the mobile operators to seek written consent from the users who have subscribed to their value-added services (VAS), such as call ring-back tone and hello tunes, in order to prevent accidental activation of such services.
Australian telecom giant Telstra has reportedly dropped outsourcing partner Satyam Computer Services from an applications support contract worth Aus $32 million annually.
In an interview with rediff.com Kamal Mansharamani of AlmaMate advices graduates on their career growth, what it takes to be a leader and how to cope with job lay offs.
BSNL, MTNL respond to Vavasi despite advice to the contrary
Currently, USO fund administrator invites bid from interested telcos for setting up infrastructure in rural areas and the process is time consuming.
Jamshedpur gave birth to Telco (now Tata Motors) which has just launched the low-cost Nano; Jamshedpur, according to the 35-year old Tata Housing Development Company managing director Brotin Banerjee, is what inspired Tata Housing to launch its Shubh Griha low-cost housing project in Mumbai.
One reason why mobile subscribers haven't shifted companies is that the service is uniformly bad. But now, with new players coming in, the picture could be different, says Sunil Jain.
Come September, the company will launch its Time Travel -- Journey 1 album with Sonu Nigam to be released on Nokia's 5130
"Around 150 people, including the company employees and their family members, are undergoing treatment at Telco Hospital while several others have been released after treatment," Deputy Chief Minister Sudhir Mahto said. He said he had directed the East Singhbhum district administration to probe the chlorine gas leak.
After the rechristening of Telco to Tata Motors in 2003, one of the auto-maker's earliest decision was to settle its high-cost debts of around Rs 500 crore with the proceeds from foreign currency convertible bonds, or FCCBs. The company had raised $100 million and repaid the debt.
Tata Group had hinted at combining its enterprise business with Tata Communications and its fixed-line and broadband businesses with Tata Sky.
Jio's global partnerships took shape this year when Jio Platforms, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Reliance Jio which has invested in various digital platforms, was able to woo a bevy of marquee investors: Facebook, Google, Qualcomm, Intel, and a numerous PE funds.
Airlines say that they are keeping their fingers crossed for December - another peak period - when, based on current bookings, the air fares for those who buy early are more or less in line with last year.
Reliance is leveraging the technological change of building a virtualised 5G network which would see the current hardware-dependent networks shift to software-centric platforms.
Vodafone and Bharti have pointed out that, for data, their revenue realisation should be at Rs 30-35 per GB for them to cover their costs as opposed to the current figure of over Rs 11 per GB. But Jio has suggested a gradual increase to Rs 15 per GB and then maybe to Rs 20 per GB after six to nine months.
Electronics and white goods manufacturers such as Videocon, Spice, Usha and Mirc Electronics have begun engaging the services of Independent design houses to take on the likes of global giants including Nokia, Sony Ericsson and LG in the mobile handset space. An IDH conducts research and development and designs handsets to enable Indian telcos launch their own mobile handset brands. It takes an upfront one-time fee for the purpose.
The race for South African telecom major MTN Group is hotting up with the possibility of two other players evaluating a bid or a strategic relationship with the company. Banking sources say European telecom major Deutsche Telekom and Russian telco Vimpel Communications are also studying the possibility of talking to the MTN Group.
Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and other telecom operators may have to pay the government a whopping Rs 1.42 lakh crore following the Supreme Court order last week that sent shock waves through an industry already grappling with billions of dollars in debt and an intense tariff war to retain customers.
