India's first 3G network, currently being tested in some Tamil Nadu villages, could well lay the seeds of a rural ICT revolution.
Sunil Mittal is confident that Airtel will retain its numero uno position, inspite of Vodafone's competition.
Bharti Enterprises, which had last year announced a $2.5-billion investment for its retail venture, is expected to announce its final plans, including that of opening of the first store, within the next two months.
The high mobile telephony penetration in India's major metros and cities is expected to lead to a dramatic churn in the space
India's booming mobile services market will see investments of over Rs 100,000 crore (around $24 billion) by 2010, the fastest investment ramp-up seen in any telecom market globally even as analysts predict a bruising battle that will see tariffs fall sharply.
Joining the rush of companies looking for spectrum, BPL Mobile has applied for a unified access service licence in 21 of the country's 23 telecom circles.
During the proceedings, Spice Telecom's counsel Mukul Rohatgi contended that DoT decided not to allow the licence as the operator had a turnover of only Rs 1,100 crore (Rs 11 billion). The decision was discriminatory, he said. However, Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal declined to pass any interim relief to the firm.
Setting an ambitious target of 100 million cellular subscribers, leading private GSM operator Vodafone-Essar today announced an investment of $6 billion (about Rs 24,000 crore) in the next three years.
Vodafone Essar seeks withdrawal of show cause notices, as according to the company no licenced condition has been breached.
The offer is applicable from September 25 to October 31 and qualifies new post-paid customers across all Tata Docomo brand stores to win iPhone 5S, Samsung and HCL tablets, data packages, powerbanks, discount coupons from Jabong, among others.
Tata Indicom on Thursday launched a dual mode handset, Samsung Duo, which can run both GSM and CDMA based mobile connections.
State-owned telecom major Mahanagar Telephone Nigam -- telecom service provider in Mumbai and Delhi circles -- has slashed domestic long-distance (STD) rates by 66 per cent with immediate effect. The STD calls made from landline and Garuda (CDMA service) will now be levied at Rs 1.20 per minute, a reduction of 66.66 per cent, as against the existing rate of Rs 2 per minute.
The staff association of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has decided to defer its indefinite strike till September 1.
This week, market leader LG Electronics -- with Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) sales turnover -- reported a 20 per cent growth in sales from its Indian operations in the first six months of the year.
The declining prices of mobile handsets and low connectivity costs have helped in doubling Internet access through cellphones this year.
At a 20 per cent premium, the South African company is valued at $45-47 billion. The Indian GSM provider is looking to acquire a 51 per cent stake in MTN.
The deal is believed to be spread over three years and will involve implementing and managing the GSM major's network in 15 circles in the country.
According to sources, with this deal and some others in the anvil Reliance would be able to double its network capacity(GSM and CDMA) from 35 million lines currently.
Reacting sharply to Bharti Airtel's offer to pay Rs 2,650 crore (Rs 26.50 billion) for all-India spectrum, Anil Ambani-led Reliance Communications on Monday said said the GSM operator was trying to prevent competition. "This is another ploy of Bharti to prevent competition. It shows their (Bharti's) anti-consumer and anti-competitive behaviour," an RCom spokesperson said.
3-tier spectrum allocation policy to curb inefficient use.
Communications Minister A Raja has raised objections.
US-based Qualcomm, the dominant supplier of the chips that drive code division multiple access mobile phones, and Reliance Communications have agreed to expand the use of the technology in India.
BPL Mobile is exploring options to hive off its tower business into a separate company and is embarking on a capacity addition initiative
In a letter sent to DoT last week, a senior ministry official said the Rs 1,650 crore did not reflect the current value of spectrum, the radio waves that enable wireless communications.
Vodafone-Essar, the leading GSM operator is raising around $500 million (Rs 2,000 crore) through overseas borrowing. This is the first fund raising by the telecom major after British telecom major Vodafone acquired a majority stake.
With BSNL slipping to the number three position on mobile subscriber base, its employees union wants immediate placement of the 45 million GSM line orders with the vendors to check the diversion of customer loss to the private operators.
State-run telecom major BSNL's plans to expand the GSM network has again come across a hurdle with Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) refusing to accept its share of the 22.5-million-lines contract due to price differences.
In a detailed reply to a missive from the Prime Minister's Office, the DoT has said its recent move to allow use of dual-technology to mobile operators is based on existing policies. According to government sources, the DoT reply, has also rejected the contention of private GSM operators that the department has shown undue favour to any particular company. It also pointed out that its moves are aimed at introducing more competition and fair play in the mobile services market.
A note prepared for Communications Minister A Raja by the DoT officials cites the October 18 meeting and offers various options available before the ministry given that it does not have enough spectrum to meet the needs of the 46 companies who have made 575 applications for spectrum in 22 telecom circles across the country.
Recommendations may encourage consolidation.
The board of GSM service provider Vodafone-Essar is expected to discuss the income tax issue at its meeting to be held on Friday.
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Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications has entered into an agreement with GSM service providers Hutchison-Essar and the Aditya Birla-controlled Idea Cellular to share passive infrastructure for cell sites.
The 40 per cent market share cap suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is likely to make mergers between existing telecom operators extremely tough.
Trai has mandated service providers to give hard copies of post-paid mobile bills to all mobile users.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Friday came out with a revised subscriber-linked policy for spectrum allocation to GSM operators, which is in line with the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
the company has already acquired the mobile rights to nearly 70 per cent of Bollywood films to be made in 2007-2008
Having lost the battle for Hutchison Essar, Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications is drawing up plans to invest up to $2.5 billion.
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