Sandwiched between employees' threat of a strike and telecom minister A Raja's insistence to renegotiate the GSM expansion deal, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited said on Friday it hopes to find a solution soon for ending the impasse.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited employees and executives across the country will go on a strike on July 11 to press the government to immediately place the purchase order for the 45.5 million GSM contract to the selected vendors.
State-owned BSNL would be the biggest gainer followed by MTNL if the government changes the inter-connect usage charges, based on TRAI's consultation paper, according to a recent report by equity research firm J M Morgan Stanley.
At present, in BSNL and MTNL, there is no such proposal for reduction of landline call charges and mobile roaming charges, officials of both the companies said.
In one of the largest deals in West Asia, a consortium of Indian telecom firms led by Delhi-based Vavasi Group, which also hopes to rope in state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) and a Malaysian investor, will acquire a 46 per cent stake in Kuwaiti telecom company Zain for around $13.7 billion.MTNL and BSNL said they would like to clarify that no view has been taken regarding their participation in the consortium.
With barely 20 days to go for the scheduled commercial launch of its services, Reliance has managed to connect with only about 51 out of over 600 points in Bharat Sanchar Nigam's network.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have sent separate letters to the department of telecommunications (DoT), asking the government to bear the entire burden of nearly Rs 11,000 crore they need to fork out as one-time payment for additional spectrum.
Delhi high court had last week stayed BSNL to award the contract till the next hearing, but had allowed the public sector company to continue with the evaluation process.
Three telecom companies - Spanco Telesystems and Solutions, TVS Interconnect Systems (a TVS group firm) and Acme Tele Power - have emerged as the front-runners for state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's (BSNL) Rs 30,000-crore infrastructure contract.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will launch by next month end its broadband service, ADSL, in Kolkata to provide cable television and video-on-demand.
The major area of expansion has been identified as the mobile phones and a 60 million tender for GSM lines has been floated by the company.\n\n
WiMax is a telecommunications technology that provides broadband speed without the need for cables. "The subscriber equipment cost or the cost of the instrument that facilitates WiMax is still priced at about $ 175-200 (Rs 8,225-Rs 9,400). So ways and means have to be worked out to offer a feasible tariff," explained a senior BSNL executive.
All districts in the country will be provided BSNL mobile facility by March 31, 2004, Information Technology and Communications and Minister Pramod Mahajan informed the Rajya Sabha on Thursday.
The two PSUs, however, when contacted, said they are yet to receive any communication from the DoT and would decide once they receive such a demand.
'If you are going to have only a handful of telecom players on whom the entire dream of Digital India rests, it's important they are financially sustainable.'
Work on BSNL, MTNL sell-off plans to begin
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio is India's strongest telecom brand in India, ahead of Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd, according to brand intelligence and data insights company TRA. TRA, formerly Trust Research Advisory, in its 'India's Most Desired Brands 2022' ranked companies according to their brand strength. Reliance Jio topped the telecom category, followed by Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea Ltd and BSNL.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd decided on Thursday to make all incoming calls on CellOne, its cellular service, free of charge from all telephones and all networks, with immediate effect.\n\n\n\n
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the public-sector telecom company, on Thursday said it was confident of expanding its mobile subscriber base to 25 million from five million in a year's time.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd lost Rs 9,000 crore (Rs 90 billion) for providing telephones in villages and remote areas, between its corporatisation in October, 2000 and December 31, 2002, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is likely to file three to four alternate tariff packages for basic telephony services with Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
In a move that may bring some relief to basic subscribers, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is working out alternate tariff packages with 'flexibility and value additions,' and expects to file the new tariffs with the telecom regulator this month.
Braving scorching heat and long queues, people made a beeline to the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited office in Srinagar as they tried to lay their hands on an application form to get a mobile telephone connection.
The government is considering a financial package of Rs 18,515 crore (Rs 185.15 billion) for the state owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd for providing services in the rural areas.
The company aims to roll out wireless broadband connectivity through WiMax technology commercially this year, especially in urban areas. Initially, it will start its operations in three states -- Maharashtra (excluding Mumbai), Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh.
Rewarding the government for its 100 per cent shareholding, the country's largest telecom operator BSNL will pay Rs 1,175 crore (Rs 11.75 billion) dividend to it for 2004-05.
The government believes firms which are subject to China's laws could be forced to hand over information to Beijing's security services.
Although BSNL's profits would come under severe pressure as subsidy on rural operations has been withdrawn and the levy charged from private players (known as access deficit charge) would also be phased out from next year, yet Goyal was hopeful of meeting the requirement internally.
Margaret Alva claims she is unable to make phone calls after dialing 'friends in the BJP'
The fall represented the second straight month of decline in subscribers. Users in the segment had reduced by 3.66 million in September, shrinking for the first time in seven months.
The Supreme Court on Thursday said that candidates belonging to the Other Backward Class category are required to be adjusted against the general category who were more meritorious than the last of the general category candidates appointed.
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.
Taking cue from holy book Bhagwad Gita, the draft telecom bill has equated spectrum to the soul which remains immortal and has used the analogy to propose its use for continuity of telecom service of entities that face insolvency.
Indian telecom operators have surpassed the three- year 5G network rollout target given to them within six months and now the government is making efforts to enhance adoption of 5G applications across various key segments, a senior government official said in Barcelona. Department of Telecom Additional Secretary VL Kantha Rao told PTI at "India Evening" event on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress 2023 that the government has hosted over 50 companies at the India pavilion and the delegation is here to showcase indigenously-developed 4G and 5G technology stack. "When the spectrum was allocated to telecom service providers for 5G rollout, we gave a minimum rollout obligation saying that within one year they have to cover a few cities within three years, a few towns and so on and so forth.
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