Babus may now use private telecom, airline services
Minister said the government wants to bring them back to profitability.
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.
For getting the benefit of the NDNC registry, the subscriber will have to register his telephone number with his telecom service provider. The registration of subscribers for NDNC has already commenced.
The Cabinet approved giving Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea Ltd and Reliance Jio an option to avail of a two-year moratorium on payments they were supposed to make in yearly installments for the spectrum bought in auctions.
The average monthly revenue per subscriber has declined to Rs 374 for the quarter ended September 2005 for GSM mobile operators while for the CDMA operators the figure is even lower at Rs 244.
The move by three major telecom service providers - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular - to set up a consortium for passive infrastructure is gaining ground, but independent telecom infrastructure providers are yet to be convinced.
A consortium led by Delhi-based Vavasi group has sent feelers to China Mobile, the world's largest telecom company, for a possible joint bid for Zain Telecom, adding another element of complexity to the battle for the Kuwait-based company that involves India's two state-owned telecom service providers.
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.
Country's top telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited on Friday welcomed the government decision to introduce mobile number portability saying it would make the sector more competitive. The government, on November 12, announced its decision to allow mobile users in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai to switch their service provider while retaining the same number.
It would be perfectly possible for a rogue customer to disconnect a call and then claim compensation.
Consumers can expect a 5G launch in the country soon. Telecom companies (telcos) say if auctions take place on time - the target is July - they would be able to offer some services in a few cities by the end of this year and a full roll-out from 2023. But the question is: will 5G turn the tables for telcos financially? Will average revenue per user (ARPU) improve? Will mobile consumers upgrade to 5G quickly and pay more? Will the expanded functions that 5G enables drum up sufficient revenues? In simple terms, will telcos make more money?
Foreign operators may fail to provide quality 3G services, unlike their Indian counterparts, as the Department of Telecommunications is offering spectrum in tranches of 5 MHz, which is insufficient for starting operations.
Bharti Airtel had planned to charge separately for internet-based voice calls provided by Skype.
"Respondent (Zee-Turner) would supply all its 32 channels from all bouquets to the petitioner (Tata Sky) within 48 hours," said TDSAT chairman Justice Arun Kumar, admitting the prayer of Tata Sky, an 80:20 Tata-Star venture, in this regard.\n\n
COAI has argued that in India the government has been working to keep telecom networks secure, with reviews of the security policy and the insertion of specific clauses into the licences to prevent any risk to network security.
The conversion of interest into equity stake for the government in Vodafone Idea (Vi) will be decided after the telecommunications (telecom) company's stock price stabilises above Rs 10, India's largest mobile tower installation company Indus Towers has said in its second-quarter report. The board of Vi had, in January, approved the conversion of Rs 16,130 crore worth of interest on adjusted gross revenue dues into equity for the government. This will give the government around 33 per cent stake in Vi.
Of this private players accounted for over 79 per cent.
The government has initiated a series of measures, including allowing re-verification at subscribers' doorstep and One Time Password (OTP) based authentication of existing users, to make the entire exercise easier for telecom subscribers.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is believed to have asked Telecom Minister A Raja to ensure full competition among service providers and disfavoured referring the controversial spectrum allocation issue to a Group of Ministers.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel reported more than 2.5 times jump in its consolidated profit to Rs 4,160 crore in the April-June quarter of 2024-25 compared to the year-ago period driven by an improvement in average revenue per user and an exceptional gain of Rs 735 crore. The company had posted a profit of Rs 1,612.5 crore in the same period a year ago. The consolidated revenue from operations of Bharti Airtel increased by 2.8 per cent to Rs 38,506.4 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 37,440 crore in the June quarter of the last year.
The govt says the step has been taken to prevent miscreants spreading rumours. The order also applies to SMS services.
Most brokerages are betting that the new government will shift to a policy focussing on boosting rural incomes and consumption since that has clearly been a pain point.
State-owned telecom major Mahanagar Telephone Nigam -- telecom service provider in Mumbai and Delhi circles -- has slashed domestic long-distance (STD) rates by 66 per cent with immediate effect. The STD calls made from landline and Garuda (CDMA service) will now be levied at Rs 1.20 per minute, a reduction of 66.66 per cent, as against the existing rate of Rs 2 per minute.
Bharti Airtel on Tuesday inked a definitive agreement with Kuwait's telecom firm, Zain, to acquire its African assets at an enterprise value of $10.7 billion
The government will conduct a spectrum auction this year, which will facilitate the roll-out of 5G services by private telecom operators during the financial year 2022-23, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Tuesday. "Spectrum auctions will be conducted in 2022 to facilitate the roll-out of 5G mobile services within 2022-23 by private telecom providers," Sitharaman said. She said the telecommunications sector in general and 5G, in particular, can enable growth and offer job opportunities.
Shrinking tariffs and falling handset costs have made Indian telecom subscribers the most pampered lot. Though it has resulted in a declining average revenue per user (ARPU) for service providers, they are not complaining as yet.
The National Stock Exchange (NSE) has received Rs 300 crore from the Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) following relief from the Supreme Court (SC), which is hearing an appeal by the market regulator in the colocation case. The court on March 20 asked Sebi to return Rs 300 crore to the NSE from the Rs 1,107 crore the exchange had deposited as part of the disgorgement in the case. The NSE had given an undertaking that it will return the entire amount to Sebi if the latter wins its appeal before the SC.
With seven million new subscribers, India accounted for the highest net addition of mobile subscriptions globally in the second quarter of 2023, according to the August edition of Ericsson Mobility. Among national markets, India was followed by China with five million and the US with three million subscribers. The subscriber penetration in India, however, stood at 79 per cent, compared to 120 per cent in China, the report said.
As Reliance Communications (RCom) is struggling to sew up a deal with South African telecom major MTN, another Indian telecom service provider Tata Communications is all set to get a majority stake in South African telecom firm Neotel.
Seven more services such as commercial property renting, fax, pager and content for telecom will become costlier from June 1 with the government bringing these services under the tax net.
Recently, companies like Bharti airtel, Idea Cellular, Vodafone and Reliance Communications raised tariffs for their services by about 20 per cent in most operating circles.
In reply to a Rajya Sabha question, minister of state for information and broadcasting Anand Sharma stated that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had informed that a comparison of entry level package prices of a few DTH operators with CAS offerings reveals that DTH pricing in the country are not exorbitant.
The Supreme Court on Friday dismissed the applications filed by telecom majors, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, seeking rectification of the alleged errors in calculation of Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) related dues payable by them. "All the miscellaneous applications are dismissed," a bench headed by Justice L Nageswara Rao said while pronouncing the order. The telecom companies had submitted before the apex court that arithmetical errors in the calculation be rectified and there are cases of duplication of entries.
As technology has progressed, the new generation technology has compressed the time to analyse data from a few days to a few minutes, thus providing access to information to business leaders on real-time basis.
Telecom operators Vodafone and Idea Cellular on Monday said they will resume 3G services in circles where they don't have spectrum through intra-circle roaming (ICR) pacts with other operators.
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