3-tier spectrum allocation policy to curb inefficient use.
The Hinduja Group, which has evinced interest in acquiring India's fourth-largest mobile operator Hutchison Essar, is also considering to buy part of a controlling stake in Telecom Italia, media reports said in London.
Shyam's application comes even as real estate major DLF Ltd confirmed on Wednesday that it will apply for telecom licences by Friday, the fourth real estate company to do so in the recent past.
The government on Tuesday said it has not received any application for 2G spectrum auction except that of Sistema Shyam Teleservices that will bid for CDMA spectrum.
An Indian firm Vavasi Telecom is trying to rope in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited to pick up a stake in Zain.
Revision in the 2005 policy for foreign direct investment in telecom sector is likely to be announced on or before January 2, Lok Sabha was informed on Wednesday.
Almost four years after savage tariff cuts, the telecom sector is slowly limping back to normalcy.
Odisha had 9,940 villages without mobile services, while 6,117 villages in Maharashtra and 5,558 villages in Madhya Pradesh did not have mobile services, the data showed.
The government plans to remove the definition of broadcasting services altogether from the bill to help reduce confusion among stakeholders.
DoT plans to initiate move that might lower the revenues telcos share with government.
From a policy point of view, India's telecom industry is getting exciting once again. After a lull of a few years, we're back to the same half-truths from regulators/policy makers, and the all too familiar attempts to help favoured firms.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's children -- Isha, Akash and Anant -- on Monday were appointed on the board of his energy-to-technology conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd, in what is seen as a clear path of succession planning at India's most valuable company.
The telecommunications industry will seek a 10-year tax holiday and an additional depreciation of 15 per cent for telecom equipment in the forthcoming Union Budget for 2007-08.
The DoT has sought legal opinion on whether to seek a review of the court order or withdraw the penalty.
To improve quality of telecom services and make tariff plans easier to understand, telecom regulator TRAI will switch to a quarterly audit of Quality of Service, instead of annually now.
The petitioner said the companies were increasing the prices just to earn huge profit. Companies like Bharti Airtel had posted an annual profit of more than 90 per cent, the NGO said.
A DoT panel has suggested completely opening up the telecom sector to foreign direct investment, a move which is expected to bring in fresh funds into the industry that is facing a financial crisis.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has moved the Bombay High Court seeking approval for amalgamating its long distance services arm Infotel with itself.
The government on Thursday unveiled its vision for the telecom sector up to 2010, listing plans to initially take total telephone connections to 250 million.
The Trai recently issued a consultation paper to seek public views to strengthen regulations to check pesky calls and SMSes.
The company said that intense competition following the disruptive entry of a new player, legal and regulatory challenges, high level of unsustainable debt and increased losses had together caused significant "negative business and reputational impact".
A day ahead of the interim Budget, India slashed import duty on spare parts, like battery cover, lens and SIM socket, used in mobile phone manufacturing to 10 per cent, from 15 per cent. The duty cut is aimed at boosting local production and exports, as well as reducing prices in local markets. The finance ministry on January 30, notified the cut in duty on all goods for use in manufacture of cellular mobile phones to 10 per cent.
Govt likely to make security clearance mandatory for telcos irrespective of equity holding before giving licences; DoT members to meet today.
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Indian telecom sector has at present around 13 mobile phone service providers with some of them expected to go for consolidation once the final guidelines are in place.
Manoj Sinha, earlier minister of state for railways, will be tasked to conduct the auction and deal with issues like net neutrality.
The mobile tariffs in the world's cheapest telecom market are set to fall further by at least 20-25 per cent during the year, more so due to increasing number of telecom operators and infrastructure overcapacity.
Do you think Maran's resignation will hit the telecom industry?
Despite low tariffs, voice usage is not growing.
Prasad asked private operators to play a role in skill development.
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At the close of trade, telecom stocks ended with as much as 4.3 per cent loss.
Even as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has started investigating into the complaints of predatory pricing offered by some of the new operators, experts are divided over whether the current scenario actually resembles predatory pricing.
The operator was acquired four years earlier by Essar, when the latter had more telecom ventures, such as the 33 per cent stake in Vodafone Essar, and also owned telecom towers.
While Ambani, 66, drew nil salary from the company since the 2020-21 fiscal year, other executive directors including his cousins Nikhil and Hital are paid a salary, perquisites, allowances and commission. His three children - twins Akash and Isha (both 31) and Anant (28 years) - will get only a sitting fee and a commission on the profit earned by the firm.
Telecom Italia's biggest shareholder is controlled by Pirelli, the Italian tyre and real estate group.
Reliance Industries' (RIL's) retail arm, Reliance Retail, is now valued at nearly twice the amount of its decades-old and lucrative oil-to-chemical (O2C) division. Bernstein's latest report on the conglomerate projects a valuation of $112 billion for its retail business, dwarfing the $57 billion valuation of its O2C division. In addition, the research firm valued Jio Platforms, the company's telecom arm, at $77 billion and the renewable energy business at $17 billion.
India has pipped China to become the world's fastest growing market, thanks to the various "innovative" ways such as infrastructure sharing and network management outsourcing adopted by it that has also helped telecom operators keep the service charge low, says a report.
The S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices have managed to stay afloat in a volatile January that saw the frontline indices hit their respective 52-week high levels and then slip. While the S&P BSE Sensex has lost over 2 per cent thus far in January, the S&P BSE Midcap and the S&P BSE Smallcap indices have gained nearly 2.5 per cent and 4 per cent, respectively during this period.
Despite the inherent attractiveness of the rural market for telecom operators various challenges still mar their entry.
