Reliance Industries, construction major L&T and IRB Infrastructure are some of the top companies that have used an infrastructure investment trust structure to reduce part of their debt and generate returns for their investors. Earlier this month, IRB Infrastructure InvIT was listed on the National Stock Exchange, giving its investors an option to exit by selling their units. The listing came within months of the Securities and Exchange Board of India's (Sebi's) guidelines for conversion of private unlisted InvITs into listed ones were issued.
The number of mobile phone subscribers in India decreased by 3.66 million in September to 1.17 billion, representing the first fall in seven months, according to the latest data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). The number of subscribers had last fallen by 3.7 million back in February. In recent months, it rose by 1.08 million in August, 0.64 million in July, and 1.89 million in June.
After Vodafone Idea, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) on Tuesday said it will opt for conversion of the interest amount on AGR dues into equity and post conversion, the government's holding in the company is expected to be around 9.5 per cent. The announcement of Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) came within hours of Voda Idea also deciding to opt for converting the interest amount on AGR dues into government equity. In a filing to the BSE, Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) said Net Present Value or NPV of interest is expected to be nearly Rs 850 crore as per the company's estimates, subject to confirmation by the Department of Telecom (DoT).
While UltraTech Cement has been the biggest value creator adding nearly Rs 99,000 crore to its market capitalisation, Grasim Industries has added around Rs 27,000 crore to its market cap.
In India, there are 22 services area, or circles, for 2G telecom services and both the companies operate in all the circles.
Tamil Nadu cadre IAS officer K Rajaraman on Friday took charge as the new telecom secretary. His joining comes following the superannuation of Anshu Prakash on September 30. "Shri K Rajaraman, IAS (TN:89) takes charge as Secretary, @DoT_India in presence of senior officials of the department," a PIB tweet said. He was serving as the additional secretary for investments at the Department of Economic Affairs before being promoted to the position of secretary, DoT.
Operators play a wait-and-watch game, as users take well-informed decisions while moving between networks.
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).
'We have informed the government multiple times that the situation in the US and India are different.' 'Here, there will be a 500 MHz gap in the frequencies which will safely allow aviation without interference.'
Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Reliance Jiosubmitted applications.
Nine million subscribers opt for mobile number portability in first three months of its launch.
Attempts are being made to balance the need for health of the sector, consumer interest while complying with the Supreme Court order on statutory dues.
Companies have activated a comprehensive pandemic response plan with requisite risk mitigation protocols for keeping networks working as telecom is an essential service.
It reported adding 698,3146 subscribers in September, the lowest since it added 6.1 million in November 2017.
Vodafone 3G plans now start from Rs 25 for 25 MB data usage and go up to Rs 1,599 for 12 GB data usage.
Providing services like broadband connectivity, cable TV, enterprise solutions, and payment wallets is the need of the hour for telcos, and a second wave of consolidation is upon the industry, a rating agency said on Tuesday. India Ratings and Research said the sector, which was battered following the aggressive entry of Reliance Jio, will continue showing signs of recovery amid conducive regulatory environment and maintained a "stable" outlook for the industry in FY22. The second round of consolidation (Consolidation 2.0) is kicking-in in the industry, which will bring a transformation in the business models of telecom companies, leading to the evolution of incumbents from the providers of traditional voice-only services to complete digital solutions for households, it said.
Vodafone and Bharti have pointed out that, for data, their revenue realisation should be at Rs 30-35 per GB for them to cover their costs as opposed to the current figure of over Rs 11 per GB. But Jio has suggested a gradual increase to Rs 15 per GB and then maybe to Rs 20 per GB after six to nine months.
Jio to charge users 6 paisa/min for voice calls made to rival phone networks. However, these charges are not applicable on calls made by Jio users to other Jio phones and to landline phones and calls made using WhatsApp, FaceTime and other such platforms.
Idea may have to shell out Rs 4,500 crore in cash
The letter was written on February 20, two weeks after the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs had approved the 100 per cent ownership proposal of Vodafone Plc in Vodafone India, at a proposed investment of Rs 10,141 crore (Rs 101.41 billion).
From spending a little less than three hours on making voice calls, Indians are spending well over 5 hours. So, while people make more calls, they are spending less than ever, reports Romita Majumdar.
The companies that have seen sharp erosion of market wealth include YES Bank, Indiabulls Housing Finance, Zee Entertainment, Vodafone Idea, and Bharat Heavy Electricals.
Prepaid mobile customers in India has never had it so good. Vodafone, Idea, MTS & Aircel has confirmed that from Friday there will be only three types of vouchers for mobile recharge. Others too will have to follow soon.
Six consecutive profitable quarters after an equal number of losses - for Bharti Airtel, the turnaround has been quick. But it is not a result of higher tariffs or absence of exceptional items alone. Execution and strategy are playing a part, too. Bharti Airtel's chief executive officer Gopal Vittal summed it up in a post-result conference call last month. "We track the profit in each of our 237,500 (cell) sites.
Admitting a report of MRTPC's investigative unit DGIR, a Bench of the quasi-judicial body, headed by Justice O P Dwivedi, issued 'notice of enquiry' and started judicial inquiry against these operators for cartelising and increasing prices of telecom services simultaneously. Admitting a report of MRTPC's investigative unit DGIR, a Bench of the quasi-judicial body, headed by Justice O P Dwivedi, issued 'notice of enquiry' and started judicial inquiry against these operators.
The company wants to woo post-paid customers and rent out its assets to cut debt.
Service was launched in Mumbai in July and it will be expanded across the country in a phased manner
Call drop problem to improve in 12-16 weeks in Delhi: Vodafone
The government is likely to get about Rs 24,000 crore from one-time spectrum fee that has been levied on existing operators for holding radiowaves beyond a prescribed limit.
Triggering a tariff war, Idea Cellular on Thursday slashed data charges by 90 per cent in eight circles, following Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, who recently cut their rates by similar margins in select circles.
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Monday announced 20-25 per cent tariff hikes for various prepaid offerings, including tariffed voice plans, unlimited voice bundles and data top-ups, and said the new rates will come into effect from November 26. The entry-level tariffed voice plan has been raised by about 25 per cent, while for unlimited voice bundles, the increase in most cases is about 20 per cent. Sunil Mittal led telco -- whose India mobile customer base stood at about 323 million at the last count -- has also increased the tariffs for data top-up plans by about 20-21 per cent
Telecom Commission says refarm all spectrum in 900-MHz band to 1,800-MHz band operators.
The government has approved mergers between telecom companies with a combined market share of 35 per cent and rejected spectrum-sharing among 3G operators while restricting it for 2G operators.
Mobile operators with the exception of Reliance Jio are in a much worse financial condition than expected earlier. The combined borrowing of the four incumbent operators - Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) - reached an all-time high of Rs 3.85 trillion at the end of March this year. The companies' combined debt was up 22.4 per cent year-on-year last financial year against 8.3 per cent growth in their borrowing in the previous year. As a result, the incumbent operators' debt-equity ratio shot up to an unsustainably high level of 6.83X at the end of March this year from 2.3X at the end of March 2020. This was largely due to big losses reported by all these companies last financial year. The four incumbent operators racked up combined net losses of Rs 70,000 crore in FY21.
This equity capital infusion is the country's largest-ever FDI.
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.
Vodafone's focus is to increase consumer data adoption along with Micromax's product expertise, it said in a statement.
Jio's global partnerships took shape this year when Jio Platforms, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Reliance Jio which has invested in various digital platforms, was able to woo a bevy of marquee investors: Facebook, Google, Qualcomm, Intel, and a numerous PE funds.
Incumbent operators can retain 2.5-MHz spectrum in 900-MHz band, rest to be refarmed decision final.