Telecom regulator TRAI on Thursday announced a substantial cut in levy accrued to state-owned BSNL at Rs 3,200 crore (Rs 32 billion) from over Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) and shifted to revenue share regime from per call basis.
This will be the first time BJP's prime ministerial candidate holds a discussion with IT, telecom czars.
The country's telecom sector went into an overdrive witnessing among other things a uniform call rate, huge foreign investments as intense competition in the arena led to a drop in tariffs to benefit the consumer.
The department is planning a complete overhaul of the archaic Indian Telegraph Act.
The broader Nifty of National Stock Exchange scaled the 10,200 mark intra day before closing at 10,184.85, showing a sizeable gain of 38.30 points, or 0.38 per cent.
The Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) of the department of telecommunications (DoT) has traced 285,000 lost or stolen mobile phones and blocked 680,000 devices since being launched. However, recoveries remain relatively low at 20,771 devices. According to government estimates, around 50,000 mobile phones are stolen every month in the country. Launched nationwide on May 16, the CEIR is a part of the DoT's Sanchar Saathi portal. It is the primary government platform aimed at protecting mobile phone users from various frauds such as identity theft, forged KYC, theft of mobile devices and banking frauds.
Department of telecommunication and intelligence agencies have long been demanding access to data on Blackberry phones, which is available only to the owners of the handset. RIM executives had met senior DoT officials recently.
The government has lost Rs 2,000 crore (Rs 20 billion) in just over a month after 1,300 group A officers, who constitute the top management and technical cadre in telecom giants BSNL and MTNL, rejected the ''inferior'' absorption offer.
Among the businesses that need consolidation are retail and defence
Despite its run-in with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Mumbai-based GSM telecom service provider Loop Telecom will launch its services in the Tamil Nadu and Orissa circles by next week.
The Supreme Court has asked the CBI to place before it the "files and notings" which purportedly suggest that its Director Ranjit Sinha wants stopping of whole trial against Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) and three top executives of the Reliance ADAG, who are accused in the 2G spectrum scam case.
Former Telecom Minister Sukhram has been held guilty by a Delhi court of misusing his official position when he was in the P V Narasimha Rao cabinet and giving undue favour to a cable supply company in a 15-year-old case.
The much-awaited guidelines on foreign direct investment in telecom are expected to be notified this month with companies likely to be given a maximum of four months
Assuming we still have a Modi-led majority government after May 2024, there is no guarantee that reforms will move at anything more than a snail's pace, though we must be thankful even for that, notes R Jagannathan.
A day before he is to surrender to undergo a three-year jail term in a 1993 telecom scam, former Union minister Sukhram on Wednesday moved the Supreme Court seeking stay on the Delhi high court order which had upheld his conviction in the case.
Airtel already offers services in Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and 17 African countries apart from India.
Telecom sector has seen phenomenal growth over the past decade or so, says the prime minister.
Expressing concern over frequent internet shutdown without any empirical study, a Parliamentary panel has pulled up the Department of Telecommunications for not maintaining the record of incidents and inaction on several of its recommendations. The Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology on 'Suspension of Telecom Services and Internet and its impact' tabled in Lok Sabha on Thursday, the panel has asked the Department of Telecom (DoT) to lay down a clear cut principle of proportionality and procedure for lifting of shutdown in coordination with the home ministry to prevent any misuse of the suspension rules. The panel rejected the logic of the DoT and Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) for not maintaining the record of the shutdown, saying it cannot simply take the plea that police and public order are essentially state subjects and suspension of the internet does not actually come under the ambit of crimes.
The chairman and group managing director of Bharti Enterprises, Sunil Bharti Mittal, was chosen the best Asian Telecom CEO
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 27 per cent jump in its September quarter net profit as earnings from the oil and gas business rebounded, and a pick-up in fashion and grocery helped boost retail revenues. The oil-to-retail-to-telecom conglomerate's consolidated net profit of Rs 17,394 crore, or Rs 25.71 per share, in July-September - the second quarter of the current 2023-24 fiscal - was 27.3 per cent higher than Rs 13,656 crore, or Rs 19.92 a share, earning a year back, the company said in a statement. The net profit was also higher quarter-on-quarter compared to Rs 16,011 crore earnings in the preceding three months ended June 30.
Telecom Italia is targeting to reduce the debt significantly over the period 2009-2011. It plans to reduce net debt to earnings before by interest, tax and depreciation and amortisation ratio to 2.3 at the end of 2011 from over 3 at present.
After targeting employees in the sectors of insurance, banking and hospitality, militants in Manipur have now targeted mobile operators in the state to continue their activities of extortion and abduction.The militants had earlier burned down mobile towers after employees of telecom companies refused to fulfill their demands. In February, militants of the Kangleipak Communist Party (Nongdrenkhomba faction) outfit burnt down a mobile tower and gunned down a security personnel.
India Inc's net profit as a percentage of the country's gross domestic product (GDP) is just shy of reaching 5 per cent, bolstered by strong earnings growth in the second quarter of 2023-24. Analysts interpret this as an indication that a corporate profit upcycle is in progress, with projections suggesting that this share could exceed 8 per cent within the next five years, driven by bullish earnings growth expectations. "We believe we are only halfway through a profit cycle, with the profit share in GDP rising from a low of 2 per cent in 2020 to about 5 per cent currently, and likely heading to 8 per cent in the coming four to five years. "This implies about 20 per cent compounding of earnings growth. "Underscoring this forecast is the start of a new private capex cycle, under-geared balance sheets, a healthy banking system, lower corporate tax rates, improving terms of trade, and structural consumption demand outlook albeit somewhat offset by likely consolidation in government deficit," said Ridham Desai, managing director, head of research, Morgan Stanley India in a note.
India can build new technology in the telecom sector that leapfrogs the legacy systems in the West and leverage these systems to serve the global market, Satyam Computer Services director T R Anand said on Monday.
Israel's Tadiran Telecom on Wednesday entered into a strategic alliance with BPL Telecom to sell its enterprise products including advanced digital PBX systems in India and said it would set up a joint venture with the Indian company for local manufa
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has significantly tightened the noose on mergers among telecom operators within a circle by imposing a three-year lock-in period, besides making it mandatory for them to take prior permission from the ministry.
The price hikes during Covid were more because of supply chain and logistics disruptions caused by the pandemic and the Ukraine war rather than firms increasing prices because of higher pricing power, a report by State Bank of India (SBI) said. "It is thus incorrect to infer that concentration power dictated pricing capacity of firms, thus resulting in unyielding core inflation," the report authored by Soumya Kanti Ghosh, group chief economic adviser, SBI, said. A recent research article by former Reserve Bank of India (RBI) deputy governor Viral Acharya had observed that persistence of core inflation in India is due to purchasing power of top-five corporate houses.
The continued growth in the communications sector, especially mobile subscriber base, is expected to push further the level of energy consumption by networks, Trai said while releasing a consultation paper 'Green Telecommunications'.
The CBI on Wednesday called Loop Telecom, CEO Sandeep Basu, Chairman of Shyam group Rajiv Mehrotra, former telecom minister A Raja's brother A K Perumal and close aide Sadiq Batcha, for questioning in relation with the 2G spectrum scam.
Private telecom operators have managed to grab 43 per cent of the total revenue generated from telecom services during 2004-05, says a leading communications business magzine.
The company declined to disclose the names of the firms it was acquiring as the regulatory clearances and some negotiations are still in process.
The recommendations of the commission will now be put before the empowered group of ministers headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram for a final decision.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported an 11 per cent drop in its June quarter net profit largely due to weak oil-to-chemical (O2C) vertical and higher interest and depreciation cost. Net profit was Rs 16,011 crore, or Rs 23.66 per share, in April-June - the first quarter of current 2023-24 fiscal year - compared with Rs 17,955 crore, or Rs 26.54 a share, earning a year back, according to a company's stock exchange filing.
With the heat over the 2G telecom spectrum scam rising, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Thursday recommended the cancellation of 34 telecom licences of companies, including Etisalat, Uninor, Loop Telecom and Siestema, due to non-compliance of roll-out obligations.
