The auction for Broadband Wireless Access started on Monday with 11 players, including Bharti, Vodafone, RCom and Tatas, in the race to acquire the two slots on offer.
There are opportunities to repeat the success of NTP '99 with 3G and Broadband Wireless Access, says Shyam Ponappa.
The Unified Licence for all 22 Service Areas across India will make the company the first telecom operator in the country to get pan India Unified Licence, the company said in a statement.
Reliance Jio accuses COAI of malafide intention.
Telecom players have started protesting against government's move to allow Voice over Internet Protocol. They say Reliance will be the biggest beneficiary.
Reliance Infotel to be the biggest beneficiary.
Malaysia's leading telecom operator, Axiata, has backed out of its negotiations to pick up a substantial stake in broadband wireless access operator Tikona Digital.
While Reliance/Infotel Broadband stands to gain if Qualcomm is forced out of the BWA race, will the potential Indian consumer of broadband wireless services gain from this unseemly tussle? That is a question that remains unanswered.
The Cellular Operators Association of India said it would not take any legal step on the issue, unlike what it had said earlier.
Will Mukesh Ambani disrupt the telecom market by offering consumers voice calls at rock-bottom tariff?
Qualcomm had received its internet service provider licence last month, after a delay of 18 months, with a validity period of 20 years after a Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal direction to DoT.
The move is being considered after growing clamour from competing 4G operators for a level playing field in relation to Qualcomm.
The move is significant as it would extend the power of CAG -- set up to audit central and state government departments as well as PSUs -- to private sector companies.
Telecom major Alcatel-Lucent on Wednesday said they are in talks with various service providers, including Reliance Industries and Tikona Digital Networks for deploying infrastructure for mobile broadband services.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday said it has acquired 49 per cent stake in Qualcomm's broadband wireless access (BWA) business in India for USD 165 million (about Rs 922 crore).
The Finance Ministry, which is under immense pressure to meet the fiscal deficit target during the current financial year, has also written a letter to the department of telecommunication to auction spectrum to earn additional revenues.
The government has raised over Rs 38,300 crore (Rs 383 billion) from the 16-day long auction for Broadband Wireless Access spectrum, which closed on Friday.
Reliance Industries (RIL) has cut estimates for proven gas reserves in its Krishna-Godavari block off the east coast by 6.7 per cent, to 3.67 trillion cubic ft (tcf), the company said in its annual report.
Intel, the world's largest chipmaker, is understood to be in talks with leading Indian telecom companies like Tata Communications (formerly VSNL), Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications that could bid for broadband wireless access spectrum to be auctioned by the government in January 2010.
According to the PwC report titled -- Value Added Service: The Next Wave -- it is now time for India to evolve from the well established mobile messaging and commoditised voice play to focus on customer segmentation based data play.
Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee has rejected a proposal by Communications Minister A Raja for refund of the Rs 29,598 crore paid by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited for third generation (3G) and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum.
The government is scheduled to borrow Rs 4.57 lakh crore (Rs 4.57 trillion) from markets this fiscal and it maintains that this level of debt would be raised.
"To use this spectrum, BSNL has gone for a franchise model on a revenue-sharing basis. As per the provision of expression of interest and agreement signed with the franchisee companies, they are required to pay amortised value of spectrum/ cost to BSNL on monthly basis," Minister of State for IT & Telecom Gurudas Kamat said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
The government on Friday said successful bidders for BWA spectrum -- including Infotel, which was acquired by Mukesh Ambani-led RIL -- will get the frequency next week, paving the way for subscribers to get mobile broadband services by the end of this year.
This investment, up from $20 billion seen last year, would be for continuing the development of 3G, Broadband Wireless Access and expansion of existing networks, said R K Pathak, secretary of the Telecom Equipment & Services Export Promotion Council, in Singapore at the CommunicAsia 2010, a Singapore exhibition for global telecom industries.
The reserve price is Rs 1,750 crore for a pan-India BWA spectrum licence.
The Budget for 2010-11 estimates the fiscal deficit, which represents excess government expenditure over its revenue, at Rs 3,81,408 crore or 5.5 per cent of GDP.
Qualcomm India got licences for four markets, including Delhi and Mumbai, apart from Kerala and Haryana.
Two years after having allotted third-generation (3G) spectrum without any contest to its own telecom companies, on the promise that they'd match the prices later paid by private sector winners of the auction for it, the communications ministry now wants them to get it for free.
Revenues from 3G and Broadband Wireless Access spectrum auction has helped government reduce the deficit.
Better than projected revenues from the spectrum auction for 3G services and Broadband Wireless Access is likely to reduce the Centre's fiscal deficit to 4.47 per cent of the GDP during 2010-11 from an estimated 5.5 per cent and curtail its huge borrowings.
The Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI), which represents ISP operators in the country, is planning to go to telecom tribunal TDSAT against the new guidelines on licence for broadband wireless access (BWA) services, announced on Friday by Communications Minister A Raja.
According to a study by industry association Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and telecom consulting firm BDA, 3G revenues in the country will reach $15.8 billion, 46 per cent of the total wireless revenue, by 2013.
The United States-based mobile chip maker Qualcomm today sold 26 per cent stake in broadband unit in India to Tulip Telecom and Global Holdings for $57.72 million (about Rs 268 crore).
Google, the world's largest search engine and one of the biggest internet brands, is understood to be eyeing opportunities in the third generation of mobile telephony, or 3G, in India.
State run BSNL on Monday it paid Rs 8,313.8 crore (Rs 83.13 billion) for Broadband Wireless Access spectrum, two days after the deadline expired, prompting the government to slap a penalty of Rs 30 crore (Rs 300 million) on the PSU.
Mukesh Ambani-led RIL on Tuesday said its newly acquired internet arm Infotel has paid Rs 12,847.77 crore (Rs 128.477 billion) it bid for pan-India Broadband Wireless Access spectrum.
The details of the BWA auction winners are still awaited from the Department of Telecom.
The telecom department has sent a letter of intent to NM Rothschild.
The Rs 67,700 crore (Rs 677 billion) revenue mop up from the auction of 3G licence will help the government cut its fiscal deficit to nearly 4.9 per cent from 5.5 per cent of GDP projected in the Budget.
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