Differences within the Cellular Operators Association of India have come out in the open again with Spice Telecom Chairman B K Modi supporting the government's move, announced on Monday, to launch "number portability" in four big cities and auction 3G spectrum for incumbents and new players.
Struggling US telecom giant Motorola is exploring the possibility of shifting part of the manufacturing facility it is closing in Singapore to India. China and Thailand are also on the radar. Top sources said India is high on the list since Motorola already has a plant in Chennai and a large domestic mobile phone base of over 120 million phones annually.
Commenting on the development, Rajiv Mehrotra, Chairman of Shyam Group, told PTI: "We are delighted that the government has opened up the way for new telecom players to operate telecom services as soon as possible and this is a major step towards offering cost-effective mobile services." Russian conglomerate has already announced up to $5 billion (Rs 20,000 crore) investment in the Indian telecom sector.
The Videocon group has expressed interest in buying telecom giant Motorola's struggling mobile handset business, which is being split into a separate company. "We have hired one of the world's top three investment bankers who will convey our interest to buy out the mobile handset business of the US company," Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot told Business Standard.
However, operators said the chief beneficiary would be the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, which have already been given the spectrum for 3G services, as well as Reliance Communications, which is still to roll out its 2G GSM network.
India's telecom sector has been through dizzying peaks, troughs, policy U-turns, court battles, brutal competition, and daily controversies. India could go back to a private sector duopoly with just Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel surviving the mayhem. The third player, Vodafone Idea, could be history.
Mobile operators have strongly opposed the decision of telecom regulator Trai to impose penalties on them for unsolicited calls, saying the move is "unfair" and would discourage service providers which cannot be blamed for the nuisance.
The department of telecom (DoT) on Friday announced a set of rules for granting telecom licences and allocating spectrum that is likely to impact GSM-technology service providers like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, among others.
With 3G mobile services, which provide high-speed downloads of data, movies and videos, around six month away, mobile phone makers are getting ready to offer handsets for as little as Rs 3,500, against the currently available minimum price of over Rs 8,000.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed Vodafone Essar Mobile Services to refund value-added service (VAS) charges that were levied without "explicit consent". However, the regulator did not specify the amount the GSM major has to refund to the consumers.
Communications Minister A Raja on Monday told Parliament that there was no "contractual agreement" between government and telecom operators to allot spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz, a move that could hurt GSM players like Bharti, Vodafone and Idea Cellular. Raja also ruled out auctioning of spectrum saying this was not feasible based on previous experiences, especially in 1993 when operators were not able to fulfill their roll out obligations.
Call blocking is one facility that telecom service providers claim is only for the chosen few, for instance the celebrities. Not withstanding its niche appeal, service providers in the country are in various stages of implementing the technology.
A user can list certain numbers with the operator from which he does not want to receive calls, and calls from these numbers would be blocked. Around 10-15 numbers can be blocked, while the caller will get a "busy tone or a recorded message".
Nokia has launched a new series of cell phones that also double as navigation devices.
Telecom Ministry has confirmed that more spectrum will be allotted to telecom players as soon as Defence ministry releases this additional spectrum.
Anil Dhirubhai AG company Reliance Communications became the first CDMA telecom service provider in India on Monday to launch Blackberry, the push mail smart phone from Canada-based Research in Motion.
Confident over second wave of revolution in mobile telephony coming from rural India, Cellular Operators Association of India said on Monday monthly additions would touch 10-million mark by December this year.
Spice Telecom on Tuesday launched 'People Phone', a mobile handset with lifetime prepaid connection at just Rs 599, targeting the rural markets where the company sees a huge potential for expansion.
Making its foray into mobile content outsourcing, the CDMA major, Reliance Communications, has signed its first contract with a Singapore-based GSM service provider.
TTSL-Virgin customers can now call any number, mobile or landline, across networks at only 50 paise per minute after the initial three minutes of the day. The first three minutes of a STD call each day would cost Rs 1.50 paise per minute while for rest of the day the long distance tariff would drop to just 50 paise per minute for maximum up to 30 minutes.
Union leaders say that Raja only assured the members that a fresh tender for the second phase of the contract would be issued soon, but was unwilling to commit on other aspects of their demand.
The Delhi High Court on Monday refused to pass any order on the telecom appellate tribunal's decision pertaining to spectrum allocation, even as GSM mobile players sought a probe into the government's move to allow use of dual technology.
Reliance Communications has received a $750 million (Rs 3,000 crore) loan from China Development Bank that would be invested in building a nationwide GSM footprint for the telephony major. The Anil Ambani group company has received the loan for a ten-year period and at a rate of Libor (London Inter-Bank Offered Rate) plus 80 basis points. RCom had received the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) approvals for the loan, sources close to the development said.
Telecom Secretary DS Mathur has told the finance ministry that a change in the entry fee that operators must pay for a telecom licence cannot be considered since the matter was approved by the Cabinet in October 2003. The letter, written late last month, was in response to a letter by Finance Secretary D Subbarao, who had requested the department of telecommunications to "stay" the issue of new licences and those for cross-over technology (from CDMA to GSM services).
Consider these numbers. The latest figures from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reveal that the number of Indians using their mobiles to logon to the internet has increased from 16 million in 2006 to 38 million in 2007 (both GSM and CDMA).
BSNL, struggling to cut the delay in its mobile expansion plan, has sought legal views before finalising its response to the queries of Telecom Minister A Raja.
The companies are expected to announce the deal soon.
India's top three GSM mobile operators, Bharti, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have joined hands to set up an independent tower company, Indus Towers, that aims to share passive infrastructure with all telecom players to enable lower cost and a more competitive operative environment.
B K Modi-controlled Spice Mobile is all set to launch its GSM phone for Rs 800 this month. Branded as the 'People's Phone', the handset, a very basic model, doesn't have a display screen. Spice officials believe the company will sell around one million units in India and 10 million globally over the next 12 months.
The Rs 6,700-crore (Rs 67 billion) deal likely in a fortnight. News of the likely transaction first broke a few weeks ago. Investment banking sources now suggest that the deal will be announced in a fortnight, if not earlier. A Tata Teleservices spokesperson refused to comment, saying: "As a policy in the Tata group, we do not comment on speculative queries."
In its drive to expand telecom services both in mobile and fixed line segments, Sunil Mittal-led Bharti Airtel on Tuesday awarded a $900 million contract to Nokia Siemens to deploy equipments in various circles in which it operates.
State-run MTNL has received the highest amount of spectrum in Delhi and Mumbai at 12.4 Mhz as on March 2009, while private GSM operators Bharti and Vodafone are not far behind at 10 Mhz each in the same period.
Talks have failed between the Dhoots of the Videocon group and Mahendra Nahata of Himachal Futuristic Communications Ltd to buy out the latter's 36 per cent stake in all-India mobile licence-holder Datacom Solutions.
Tribunal Chairman Justice Arun Kumar adjourned the hearing after Solicitor General Goolam E Vahanvati, appearing for the Centre, told the tribunal that "there will be no allocation of spectrum to any player".
The total number of telephones (wireless and wired) in the country stood at 248.66 million, compared with 241.02 million in August this year.
High-end mobile device Blackberry, which was till now available only with the GSM operators, will be soon launched on CDMA platform by Reliance Communications.
Riding high on a sharp growth in subscriber base, Anil Ambani group's telecom arm RCOM on Thursday reported a 23.9 per cent jump in its first quarter net profit at Rs 1,512 crore (Rs 15.12 billion) and announced plans to invest over Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) in the current fiscal.
From a policy point of view, India's telecom industry is getting exciting once again. After a lull of a few years, we're back to the same half-truths from regulators/policy makers, and the all too familiar attempts to help favoured firms.
"There is no contractual agreement to give spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz. We are releasing more spectrum based on subscriber base as suggested by telecom regulator Trai," Raja said in the House while replying to a question. Spectrum is radio frequency used for offering wireless telecom services. Currently, spectrum allocation norms, which were revised in August 2007, are being followed while the Teleconm Enginering Centre report is awaited.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has mooted a proposal under which operators will pay a one-time fee for all spectrum allotments beyond 6.2 MHz.
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