The government on Wednesday said it has cleared Norwegian telecom firm Telenor's proposal to invest Rs 1,000 crore in a joint venture company in the telecom sector.
As many as 58 companies raised money from automatic route and 8 firms raised via approval route.
The total number of telephone connections in the country crossed the record one billion mark in May, bolstered by growth in number of mobile users.
The government has allocated spectrum to Vodafone in all 14 service areas, where the telecom major won in November 2012 auction for Rs 1,127.94 crore (Rs 11,27 billion).
Eight FDI proposals worth Rs 1,311.54 crore (Rs 13.11 billion), including that of Norwegian telecom firm Telenor, have been cleared by the government on the basis of FIPB approvals.
No reason was cited for rescheduling of the meeting.
'Spectrum payment to push up telcos' debt to Rs 3.5 lakh cr'
After building a subscriber base of nearly 50 million in about eight chequered years, it finally gave up as it saw itself up against a 600-pound gorilla that breezed through double that many subscribers in a fraction of that time, says N Sundaresha Subramanian.
The Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) on Friday deferred a decision on Rs 2,000-crore (Rs 20 billion) Jet-Etihad deal, the largest foreign investment in the Indian aviation sector, and sought clarity on control and ownership.
The Norway-based firm, Telenor, entered India through a joint venture with Unitech Wireless.
Telecom companies have put in bids worth Rs 58,332 crore (Rs 583.32 billion) in spectrum auction at the end of 49 rounds on the 7th day of bidding on Monday.
The auction started off with the 36th round this morning. At the end of 35 rounds on Friday, bids worth around Rs 54,600 crore had been received by the government.
Govt likely to make security clearance mandatory for telcos irrespective of equity holding before giving licences; DoT members to meet today.
Government's resolution on the contentious issue of spectrum usage fee seems to have found favour with telecom operators with none of them withdrawing their application from airways auction on the last day on Monday.
The telecom spectrum auction entered the 33rd round of bidding today after starting off from the Rs 52,689 crore (Rs 526. 89 billion) mark this morning.
The amount generated so far is about 86 per cent of what the 3G auction fetched in 2010.
The third round of spectrum auction continued to witness aggressive bidding even after completion of seventeen rounds on Wednesday with demands for both bands of airwaves on offer continuing to pour in.
Since August 2013, FIPB has approved two FDI proposals in the telecom sector.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio Infocomm and five other telecom firms will battle it out at the spectrum auction tomorrow, from which the government expects to garner at least Rs 11,300 crore (Rs 113 billion).
Telecom companies that bought spectrum in the 2G auction of November last year would lose around Rs 4,000 crore
Spectrum auction took off on Wednesday from Rs 58,980.29 crore (Rs 589.80 billion) mark with demand for the premium 900 Mhz band seemingly tapering off at the end of 56 rounds.
The government has suffered a loss of Rs 12,488.93 crore (Rs 124.88 billion) due to under-invoicing of gross revenue by six telecom companies including Reliance Communications, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, the CAG said in a damning report on Friday.
After a two year run-in with controversies, telecom sector now looks stable and seems back on its feet with initial investment proposal of over Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) received in 2013.
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