The government will start allotting third generation (3G) spectrum from Wednesday to successful bidders, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar, among others. A senior DoT official, said the allotment of 3G spectrum will start on Wednesday.
Senior official from the department of telecommunication said the deck has been cleared and the department will handover the spectrum to the operators on Wednesday.
However, the IT firms will get some benefits, as software exports from their Chinese campuses will yield more in local currency
Apex auditor CAG on Friday lamented that private telecom operators are not providing their account books to it, despite a request from the government.
Vodafone Essar on Thursday said it has crossed the 100-million subscriber mark in India, becoming the third mobile operator in the country to do so after rivals Bharti Airtel and Reliance communications.
The government will soon resolve the security concerns surrounding third-generation (3G) video calls.
A Bench headed by Justice Altamas Kabir sought an reply from 11 repondents Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, Association of Unified Telecom Service Providers of India, Reliance Communications, Tata Teleservices, Vodafone Essar Mobile Services, Cellular Operators Association of India, Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, BPL Mobile Communications, HFCL Infotel, and Spice Communications -- as to why they should not pay ADC to BSNL.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communication and other GSM telephone operators owe government over Rs 451 crore (Rs 4.51 billion) in license fee and spectrum charges, the Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.
The top three fixed line players Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited and Bharti Airtel reported a revenue decline.
According to sources, Reliance Infratel would offer 10 per cent equity to the public valued at Rs 5,000-6,000 crore (Rs 50-60 billion). Reliance Infratel is the telecom infrastructure division of Reliance Communications Ltd.
This was the most serious cable disruption since 2001, when a submarine cable connecting the mainland with the US was cut off.
Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group stocks plummeted on Wednesday after ADAG chairman Anil Ambani reportedly met Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal.
Airtel, Vodafone-Essar favour delinking; Reliance, Tata oppose.
BSNL on Monday moved the Supreme Court against an order of telecom tribunal TDSAT, directing it to provide interconnection to Anil Ambani group firm Reliance Communications through copper-based link.
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.
The company has made payment in compliance with Telecom Department's instructions for self assessment, Mittal said, adding that the Supreme Court had not mentioned specific amounts.
The ADA Group's recent decision to sell a stake in Reliance Communications and merge its telecom tower business with GTL Infra will help it reduce a mounting debt burden.
Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 11,374.7 cr while upfront amount due from it was Rs 7,832.20 cr
The tribunal accepted the government's argument that licence or spectrum is a state asset over which Aircel had no right of ownership.
Chiefs of leading telecom firms, including Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel, Anil Ambani of RCom and Vittorio Colao of Vodafone, met Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday and placed their views.
Reliance Infratel, the tower business of Anil Ambani-controlled Reliance Communications, is learnt to be in talks with another tower firm GTL to part-sell its stake and also combine the businesses of both entities.
Available on mobile phones through SMS, WAP and downloads, 'BIGMaps' service will offer local search in form of maps, Reliance Communications said in a statement. The service, which will provide users information on local business, directions to locations, events and movies, will also be provided through internet in the near future, RCom said.
The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has cleared Reliance Infratel's draft red herring prospectus for its proposed initial public offering (IPO). Reliance Infratel will offer 10 per cent equity under the proposed IPO.
The country's most valued firm RIL's bid to acquire a majority stake in bankrupt petrochemical group was called off by LyondellBasell after the latter found the price offer was undervaluing the company.
The government is likely to release spectrum on September one this year after it gets vacated by the defence forces.
After initial hiccups, the government on Thursday permitted carriage of video calls on mobile networks subject to an undertaking by operators that they would provide interception capability by July 31 this year.
In absolute terms, the outstanding book value of NPAs of LIC in the debt portfolio across life, pension and unit-linked funds is to the tune of Rs 32,685.39 crore at the end of December 2019.
While the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has approved the access of TV on mobiles, service providers still cannot stream live TV channels on to the handset due to spectrum allocation from the Ministry of Information and Broadcast. However, since the regulations do not allow a direct transmission of TV channels, service providers as well as content providers have started using a technology called Unicast which provides content to end-user on a one-on-one basis.
The lobby group of CDMA mobile players like the Reliance Communications and the Tatas has accused that the government was favouring the GSM players while deciding the criteria for spectrum allocation and in its pricing.
The books of these companies had come under a cloud after it was alleged that many of them had not been paying the goverment's share of revenue by showing the revenue earned under other categories. Under a suggestion of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, a special audit of all the integrated telecom companies will be undertaken once in 3-5 years.
After 3G auctions, analysts worried over the likely rise in debt and pressure on margins
The Indian government has emerged as the biggest winner.
Even as the implementation of MNP is likely to be delayed from the scheduled date of September 20, the PSU, which hopes to attract substantial number of users from the rivals like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Communications, has called for expression of interest for MNP gateway.
The Maoists have already blown up as many as 16 telecom towers in different places of these districts, thereby disrupting the mobile telephone services.
After a long wait, Tata Teleservices on Thursday launched the premium Blackberry mobile services that offers customers e-mail, SMS messaging and Internet-based applications.
Reliance Communications has decided to launch a call centre to help its subscribers locate a particular destination. It will give information on the shortest route to a destination, important places to visit while travelling to another city, location of theatres, hospitals and ATMs. The information, if required, will also be texted to user. The service, currently in its pilot phase, will be launched across the country within a fortnight.
The actor is ready with the Kannada film which also stars Anjana Sukhani and Yuvika Choudhary.
Close on the heels of cellular operators announcing the launch of one-paisa-per-second billing scheme for all local/STD calls, roaming services and SMS, MTNL has slashed mobile tariffs to half-a-paisa per second on home network.
3G technology is the latest in mobile communications. 3G stands for 'third generation'. It is the next big revolution in the Indian telecom arena, with all big mobile firms -- Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance Communications -- in the fray to get a portion of the lucrative pie.
Domestic brokerage Sharekhan's last month's analysis of buy and sell transactions by mutual funds shows that the fund houses purchased stocks from sectors such as infrastructure, IT, telecom and healthcare, while offloading shares from oil and gas and banking sectors. Domestic mutual funds are lapping up the buying opportunity present in the bear gripped stock market and made net purchases worth Rs 3,179 crore (Rs 31.79 billion) in equities in June.
