Value-added services (VAS) and mobile-content providers may soon come under a licensing regime. Security concerns regarding VAS have come to the forefront in the ongoing debate over security issues surrounding Blackberry services in India.
The total outstanding dues against Bharti Airtel is Rs 11,235.50 crore.
While Airtel's India wireless operational performance was one of its worst in recent times, Jio surprised the Street by reporting a higher expected operating and net profit.
India has now around one billion mobile subscribers, he added.
The top four Indian IT firms have cash reserves of nearly $15 billion with TCS alone holding $5.9 billion in reserves, followed by Infosys with $3.6 billion, and Wipro with $3.4 billion. HCL Technologies has cash reserves of $1.75 billion.
Tata Group had hinted at combining its enterprise business with Tata Communications and its fixed-line and broadband businesses with Tata Sky.
Information technology major Infosys and Liberty Global, a London-based telecom firm, signed a 1.5 billion (about $1.64 billion) deal for five years to evolve and scale up the telco's digital entertainment and connectivity platforms, the companies said in a joint statement on Tuesday. As part of the expanded collaboration agreement, the size of the contract will touch 2.3 billion (about $2.5 billion) if extended to 8 years. The collaboration allows Liberty Global to realise run-rate savings of over 100 million (about $109 million) per annum, inclusive of other savings and technology investments, Infosys said in a statement.
The Intelligence Bureau and the Research and Analysis Wing are at loggerheads with the Home Ministry for its proposal to allow international roaming for Pakistanis on Indian soil as they believe it will be misused. Vicky Nanjappa reports
Bharti Airtel, the country's largest mobile operator, has already joined the global Seamless Alliance to provide in-flight connectivity.
With the world getting more and more instrumented with smart devices, global enterprises are increasingly looking at undertaking a 'digital transformation' journey to stay ahead in the race. Emerging technologies such as social, mobility, analytics and cloud have given birth to new business opportunities and forcing enterprises to finetune their IT buying decisions -- quite differently from what they used to do.
VSNL was taken over by a bout of volatility in early trades on Monday, losing 4.35% to Rs 80.15, but then picking up to make good much of the loss.
Bharti Airtel on Monday posted a 54 per cent jump in consolidated net profit to Rs 2,442.2 crore in the December quarter, mainly on account of growth in high value customers. Airtel prepaid mobile customers are required to pay at least Rs 155 for about a month-long service as the company had raised rates by 56 per cent in January 2023. Bharti Airtel managing director Gopal Vittal has indicated a need for further increase in mobile services rates.
Conversion of debt of the stressed telecom player Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) into equity could be an option to emerge out of the crisis, lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) have suggested to Department of Telecommunications (DoT). DoT had called senior bank officials on Friday to discuss the stress in the telecom sector arising out of the Supreme Court order last month on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-related dues payable by telecom majors, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, sources said. The top court has given a time period of 10 years to telecom service providers struggling to pay Rs 93,520 crore of AGR-related dues to clear their outstanding amount to the government.
The move comes a few days after billionaire businessman Elon Musk tweeted that his Starlink internet services would be available in India as soon as it gets regulatory approvals next year. Musk's Starlink, which plans to have a constellation of 40,000 low-orbit satellites, recently started offering high-speed internet in the US as part of its beta launch phase.
Just a few weeks ago, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw did some tough talking with the senior managers of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the ailing state-owned telecom service provider. The message was clear: They had to perform, quit by taking the voluntary retirement package or be compulsorily retired from service. The terse message from an otherwise polite and soft-spoken minister came just days after he announced a second and bigger package of Rs 1.64 trillion as part of a four-year turnaround plan for BSNL.
The new "combo vouchers" will enable customers to add value in their mobile phone account as well as avail services at discounted rates.
CEOs expect to finish the ongoing March quarter with positive growth as the corporates get back to work in full strength.
"Delhi Police had requested the IT ministry to block two download links and the entire We Transfer website immediately. Following which orders were issued to the website and links suggested by the Delhi Police," an official source told PTI.
Vodafone had contended in its plea that DoT instead of signing and executing the ULs had at the last moment informed them that their request for deletion of 'restrictive' clauses in licence pertaining to roaming cannot be accepted.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has moved the Bombay High Court seeking approval for amalgamating its long distance services arm Infotel with itself.
Amid an existential crisis confronting the company, Vodafone Idea CEO Ravinder Takkar has reached out to consumers reaffirming the telco's commitment to continue providing "superior services and best-in-class propositions". Thanking users for their continued support as the company approaches first anniversary of 'Vi' branding, Takkar noted that Vi came with a promise of a better tomorrow, bringing the best in technology, services and solutions for the Digital India and Digital Bharat. The company will continue to deliver on this promise to keep users ahead, Takkar said in the mailer to consumers.
Bharti Airtel on Tuesday announced that it has scrapped the minimum recharge plan of Rs 99 in seven circles -- Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Northeast, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh (West). In these circles, the price of the entry-level plan now would be Rs 155. This 57 per cent increase in Airtel's entry-level plan comes two months after the telco discontinued the Rs 99 plan in Haryana and Odisha in November last year.
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.
The proposal may provide relief to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore to service providers.
Facebook is giving new users Aadhaar prompts!
The subscribers will have to, however, wait for some more time for Internet services to resume in the Valley
The bench said final hearing in all Aadhaar-related issues would start before another bench in the last week of this month.
Telecom Secretary J S Deepak has resolved the toughest issues facing the sector, but his real test will be in delivering on the govt's Digital India dream
With intense competition in telecom sector, the two companies are rushing to diversify into other revenue streams, prominent among which are cloud services.
Availability of Wi-Fi is also expected to provide local airlines an additional source of revenues amid stiff competition in the fast growing Indian aviation market.
Department of Telecom had sought the legal opinion of the matter from the government's counsel.
The government is planning to merge Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) with the loss-making state-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) this month, a senior official has said. BSNL chairman and managing director PK Purwar at a recent event organised by the All India Graduate Engineers and Telecom officers Association (AIGETOA) said that the government is giving the telecom firm an opportunity for a turnaround. "The government has taken a policy decision that BBNL is going to be merged into BSNL. "This means all work of BBNL at the pan-India level is going to come to BSNL," Purwar said at the All India Conference of AIGETOA on March 13.
This will be in line with government's vision of Digital India.
Analyst are cautious about the performance of IT services sector from January to March quarter (Q4) of FY24 and the first half (H1) of FY25. While the Bloomberg consensus on revenue implies the market is expecting 2-3 per cent growth on a quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) basis for the IT majors through FY25, the H1FY25 is likely to see even flatter returns, and Q4FY24 is likely to be poor. There is likely to be some recovery in the second half (H2FY25) but even so, there's a chance that the market will be overall disappointed.
The government has ordered internet companies to block 67 pornographic websites following court orders and for violating the new IT rules that were issued in 2021.
The 5G road map pursued by India should not only move the country forward but also result in progress of weaker sections of society.
American tech billionaire Elon Musk on Saturday said his proposed visit to India has been postponed due to "very heavy Tesla obligations". The electric carmaker Tesla CEO -- who was expected to be in India on April 21 and 22 and scheduled to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi -- wrote on X that he is looking forward to coming to India later this year.
Telecom service operator Airtel on Thursday urged the government not to charge high fees for allotting 5G spectrum, saying a faster roll out of the next-generation telecommunication network can have more benefits than collecting revenue in upfront cost. Sunil Bharti Mittal, chairman of Bharti Enterprises which runs the country's second largest telco, said that there are a variety of applications across sectors ranging from healthcare to video interactions, which will make 5G a technology to be introduced as soon as possible. "5G is important and that's why we keep on requesting the government to make the 5G as an enabler for hundreds of things that we develop in the country, to keep the spectrum at affordable pricing, to not load the industry too much," Mittal said at the Times Network India Economic Conclave.
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