Officially confirming the change in tack for the first time after months of speculation, Kuldeep Goyal, BSNL's chairman and managing director, told Business Standard, "Foreign partners definitely bring in some expertise that will help the company improve its performance."
Reliance Industries, which holds pan-India 4G telecom spectrum for data services, has applied for a licence to offer mobile telephony.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) on Tuesday postponed the spectrum auction by 19 days to June 25, as per information available on its website. According to amendments made in the notice inviting applications for bids on Tuesday, the new date for "start of the live auction" has been changed to June 25 from June 6. The government will auction eight spectrum bands for mobile phone services at a base price of about Rs 96,317 crore.
Leading telecom service provider Bharti Airtel has urged the government not to change existing spectrum allocation criteria and to continue with the additional 2G spectrum allocation policy based on subscriber figures.
The government has given an option to telcos to pay back interest on dues through equity and also conveyed that it has no interest in acquiring any telecom company, a top official of debt-ridden Vodafone Idea has said. Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) managing director and CEO Ravinder Takkar in an interview to PTI said it is clear that the government wants the company to compete in the market and there should be at least three private service providers in the telecom sector. "I have had many many interactions across various parts of the government leading up to this announcement (telecom reforms).
Interconnect user charges are paid by one telecom service provider to another for enabling calls from one network to the other. The present interconnect charge of 30 paise per incoming minute was fixed in 2003. The price was considered high even then. Now, with equipment prices falling, a revision was called for, said industry analysts.
The lobby group of CDMA mobile players like the Reliance Communications and the Tatas has accused that the government was favouring the GSM players while deciding the criteria for spectrum allocation and in its pricing.
'Similar to the case of the digital payment system where the government created a public platform and others joined in, we are exploring a similar structure to create a PPP platform where the compute required for AI could be accessed by the small player.'
According to a study by analyst firm Angel Broking, once the MNP facility is operational, mobile operators' average revenues per user, the benchmark of a telecom operator's financial strength, would get adversely impacted by around 5 per cent. Telecom companies' margins would also drop by 100-150 basis points and even earnings per share estimates would be pruned by 9-21 per cent.
GTL has set up a special purpose vehicle -- GTL M&A Services -- through which it will provide services like engineering, operation and management, designing and building of network infrastructure. The company would provide remote network managed services from India.
Rival operators' lobby to approach Delhi High Court.
RCom had won 3G spectrum in 13 circles, including Delhi and Mumbai.
Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea will roll out revised mobile service tariffs increasing rates in the range of 10-24 per cent from the first week of July. Bharti Airtel announced a 10-21 per cent hike in prepaid and postpaid mobile tariffs from July 3, a day after larger rival Reliance Jio announced an increase in rates. Later in the day, loss-making telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) also announced its plan to raise mobile tariffs by 11-24 per cent from July 4.
RCom and Tata Teleservices are the top net losers of subscribers under mobile number portability (MNP) services.
The bench also took on record, the statements of Solicitor General G E Vahanvati that the government was considering comprehensive changes in the archaic Indian Telegraph Act, 1885, which laid down rules for interception of telephones.
Telecom operators who offer BlackBerry services are also ISPs. The feasibility of this solution, says DoT, will be explored after discussions with the Intelligence Bureau as well as the ISPs.
Soma Networks, a US-based provider of mobile Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) products and services, plans to launch compact WiMAX-enabled devices in India within six months.
Telecom software company Hughes Software Systems today said it was looking for acquisitions and will hire 2500 people by March 2006.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday failed to get any interim relief from the Supreme Court as it refused to stay telecom appellate tribunal TDSAT's order restricting regulator's jurisidiction to effect changes in the agreement signed bet
For instance, while Digitial Media Convergence -- a part of ESSEL Group (promoter of ZEE TV) -- provides the mobile TV (also known as the fourth screen -- the other three comprising the silver screen, TV and PC) application service 'ISEE' along with telecom service provider BSNL.
The DoT has issued long-awaited migration guidelines which pave way for Internet service providers (ISP) like Reliance Jio Infocomm and Tikona, that have BWA spectrum, to offer mobile telephony service by paying an extra fee of Rs 1,658.57 crore (Rs 16.58 billion).
The income tax department has moved the Supreme Court stating that private telecom service providers are liable to deduct tax at source for the payments made to state-owned BSNL and MTNL for inter-connectivity.
18% cent GST on iPhones continues to weigh heavily on the final cost to Indian consumers, limiting the impact of price cuts.
This move is seen as part of efforts to strengthen China's ties with Pakistan and safeguard Chinese investments in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, particularly related to the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor.
Trai asks telcos to add towers to address call drops.
Last week, the Supreme Court refused to grant interim relief to the operators.
Despite high awareness of 3G and its capabilities to deliver broadband content, it may take 8-10 years before the majority of mobile subscribers adopt it, says the study by The Nielsen Company.
India's IT and business services market is expected to grow 5.4 per cent annually to reach $13 billion by December this year, research firm IDC said. The segment grew 5.3 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) in January-June (H1) 2020 period as compared to 8.9 per cent growth in H1 2019, IDC said in a report. Of the IT and business services market, the IT services market contributed 77.4 per cent in H1 2020, growing 5.9 per cent y-o-y as compared to 9.3 per cent growth in the year-ago period.
In a move that would result in the mellowing of the spectrum issue and enabling the new service providers to commence operations, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has begun identifying the quantity of unused spectrum across 23 circles in the country.
Vodafone's assessment is that the controversy over the spectrum allocation case is not over.
Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani has proposed that the government should make it mandatory for telecom service providers to surrender additional spectrum that they are not utilising. Putting his proposal into practice, Ambani has also conveyed his willingness to surrender the extra 1.8 MHz spectrum that his group has in the Bihar circle.
GSM service provider Idea Cellular will invest an additional $400 million (Rs 1,600 crore) for rolling out telecom services in four new circles - Mumbai, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Orissa - for which it has received spectrum from the Department of Telecommunications.
Sunil Mittal, chairman & group managing director of the Bharti group, is Business Standard's CEO of the Year for 2005-06.
As a measure of abundant caution in the face of the Ayodhya verdict, the government on Wednesday banned bulk SMSes and MMSes for three days with immediate effect.The ministry of communications issued the order in consultation with the ministry of home affairs. The order has been issued to all mobile telecom service providers in the country for "banning all bulk SMSes and MMSes in all service areas with immediate effect for the next 72 hours".
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.
Bharti Telesoft, a supplier of value added services platforms to wireline and wireless carriers, has been ranked as one of the country's fast growing 50 technology companies by Deloitte Technology.
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