Reliance Industries (RIL's) annual report released on Sunday highlighted the company's focus on new energy solutions, with chairman and managing director (MD) Mukesh Ambani stating that the age of fossil fuels will not continue much longer. RIL has sought shareholders' approval to give Ambani another five-year term as MD till 2029 at nil salary. The recently demerged Jio Financial Services, which "will leverage the prowess of digital and retail businesses", was expected to be listed soon.
The government expects the rollout of 5G services to start from early October in the country, Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Saturday. "As soon as the spectrum auction ends, within a few days itself, we will allocate the spectrum. "We expect that the 5G roll-out will happen from the beginning of October and within a year or so, we should have a good rollout in the country," the Union Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw told reporters in New Delhi.
Adani Data Networks said it plans to create a private 5G network for its operations. However, it acquired the spectrum in the last 5G auction alongside three telecom companies. Subsequently, it was granted a unified licence for access services, which enables it to provide telecom services in the country.
With better than expected Rs 1.45 lakh crore bids coming in on the first day, the auction of 5G spectrum entered the second day on Wednesday with the opening of the fifth round. Firms run by tycoons Mukesh Ambani, Sunil Bharti Mittal and Gautam Adani as well as Vodafone Idea are participating in the e-auction to buy fifth-generation (5G) airwaves. The government received confirmed spectrum bids worth Rs 1.45 lakh crore after the completion of four rounds of spectrum bidding on the opening day on Tuesday.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio on Friday announced deferring the roll-out of the JioPhone Next - the low-priced smartphone it has developed with Google - to Diwali. The phone was previously to be launched on September 10. Ambani at the shareholder meeting of his flagship Reliance Industries in June, had stated that the JioPhone Next will be available for purchase on September 10.
Jio had almost three times higher speed than its nearest rival Bharti Airtel.
The latest telecom war kicked off after some pictures surfaced, showing Airtel banners among agitating farmers. According to the Jio camp, it was a giveaway that farmers were being enticed to port their phone numbers.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B ministry) may launch its review of the government's plan to potentially reserve the crucial C-band of radio frequencies for 5G and 6G telecommunication (telecom) use, said officials. While the incumbent broadcasting operators have warned that the plan will leave "precious little spectrum" for broadcasting services, telecom service providers (TSPs) have pressed hard for getting access to the C-band. In multiple letters to the I&B ministry over the past month, the News Broadcasters & Digital Association (NBDA) has said the industry would be left with precious little spectrum for broadcasting services if the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) further allocates the scant C-band for 5G.
Telecom service providers (TSPs) have begun to monitor and prevent spam calls since May 1, with the help of an artificial intelligence and machine language-based system acting on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) latest directive on the matter, its officials told Business Standard. Touted as the first big technological measure against the growing menace of unsolicited commercial communications, all TSPs have confirmed to Trai that they have rolled out the AI/ML tool. The filter system works on the distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform used by TSPs, and is set to go for incremental updates, rules for which will soon be released, they added.
Airtel tops with 3.7 million new subscribers, Jio adds 2.2 million; Vi lets go of 2.7 million.
Reliance Jio has suggested an alternative plan to the The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) under which spectrum required by non-geostationary orbit satellite (NGSO) operators to run their gateway terminals should be auctioned geographically, based on districts, rather than circles as done for mobile services. For spectrum which would be required to connect user terminals (like individual homes), Jio has suggested it should be auctioned frequency-wise and exclusively to an operator at a pan-India level. The move is significant as the auctioning of satellite space spectrum has been vehemently opposed by low earth orbit satellite operators (satellites which circle at low altitudes of 200-2000 km).
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel on Tuesday posted a 49.2 per cent jump in its consolidated net profit to Rs 3,005.6 crore for the January-March quarter of 2022-23 on the back of new 4G customers and strong growth in average revenue per user (ARPU). The company had recorded a net profit of Rs 2,007.8 crore in the same period a year ago. Bharti Airtel's consolidated revenue from operations grew by 14.31 per cent to Rs 36,009 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 31,500.3 crore in the March 2022 quarter.
Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) CEO Ravinder Takkar did some plain speaking. In an analyst call after its quarterly results recently, Takkar said that the main stumbling block to raising fresh capital from investors is "pricing" - telecom tariffs, in other words. Nine months ago, the telecom company's board had cleared a proposal for raising Rs 25,000 crore from investors, after the promoters made it clear that they were not ready to pump in more money. But potential investors are concerned that without clarity on tariff hikes (there have been none for more than 18 months) they might just lose their money. The lack of visibility on raising tariffs has also impelled VIL to request the Department of Telecom (DoT) for a fresh reprieve by extending the two-year moratorium on paying its spectrum instalment of Rs 8,200 crore for another year till FY23.
'He has got more grey hair after beginning captaincy,' Head Coach Mahela Jayewardene quipped as he gave his skipper an affectionate hug.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported an 11 per cent drop in its June quarter net profit largely due to weak oil-to-chemical (O2C) vertical and higher interest and depreciation cost. Net profit was Rs 16,011 crore, or Rs 23.66 per share, in April-June - the first quarter of current 2023-24 fiscal year - compared with Rs 17,955 crore, or Rs 26.54 a share, earning a year back, according to a company's stock exchange filing.
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 Department of Telecom on Tuesday approved applications of telecom companies -- Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and MTNL -- for conducting 5G trials but none of them will be using technologies of Chinese entities. The list of telecom gear makers approved for trials include Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, C-DOT and Reliance Jio's indigenously developed technologies.
Bharti Airtel on Thursday said its 5G services have gone live in eight cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Siliguri, Nagpur and Varanasi. The customer availing 5G services will have to pay as per their existing 4G plan, it said. "Airtel has been at the forefront of India's telecom revolution for the last 27 years.
While Jio MF will undoubtedly grow in size, it will have to cross multiple hurdles even to emerge as the market leader, observes Debashis Basu.
Its success script: Investing more in local content ecosystem; growing its partnership footprint.
Billionaire Mukesh Ambani's children -- Isha, Akash and Anant -- on Monday were appointed on the board of his energy-to-technology conglomerate Reliance Industries Ltd, in what is seen as a clear path of succession planning at India's most valuable company.
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.
As per the latest data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Vodafone Idea -- born last year from the merger of older operators Vodafone India and Idea Cellular -- continues to be the largest operator with 38.75 crore consumers and 33.36 per cent market share in the wireless segment as on May 31, 2019.
Jio's spectrum trading pact with Airtel has enabled India's largest telco to top-up its holding in three key circles and yielded potential savings of about $400 million, according to a report. It is pertinent to mention here that Reliance Jio has signed an agreement with Bharti Airtel to acquire a portion of spectrum in 800 MHz band for Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai circles at an aggregate value of Rs 1,497 crore -- marking the first such deal between the two telecom giants that otherwise compete fiercely in the market. Market analysts have termed the deal "mutually beneficial" and "win-win for both". UBS in a note cited Jio's spectrum buys in the 800 MHz band in Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Mumbai in the recently-concluded auctions.
India's telecom subscriber base grew to over 1.17 billion in October with Bharti Airtel maintaining its leadership in mobile subscriber addition that accounts for over 98 per cent of total connections in the country, according to the monthly report released by sector regulator Trai on Wednesday. This is the second consecutive month when Airtel added highest number of subscribers. In September, it had regained the leadership position in subscriber addition after a gap of four years. The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company added 3.67 million new customers in October, taking its total wireless customer base to 330.28 million in October 2020, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) report said.
The government believes firms which are subject to China's laws could be forced to hand over information to Beijing's security services.
Isha's stab at the bottom of the laptop pyramid shows she is a true Ambani.
Reliance Industries Ltd will invest Rs 75,000 crore in rolling out 5G mobile telephony services, expanding retail network and setting up renewable energy capacity in Uttar Pradesh in the next four years, its chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Friday. Ambani also announced foray of the oil-to-telecom conglomerate into bio-energy business, converting agriculture waste into gas which can be used as fuel in industries, run automobiles or light kitchen stoves. Speaking at the Uttar Pradesh Global Investors Summit 2023 here, Ambani said his group will set up 10 GigaWatts of renewable energy capacity and roll out 5G services across the state in the next 10 months.
Supreme Court had asked the government to issue RCom a NoC for spectrum sale to Reliance Jio Infocomm by December 9 if it furnishes a corporate guarantee of Rs 1,400 crore
Country's largest telecom player Jio has completed 5G coverage planning in top 1,000 cities and conducted field trials of its home-grown 5G telecom gears, Reliance Industries said in its annual report. In the report, RIL (Reliance Industries Limited) said that Jio took major steps during 2021-22 in getting ready for 5G with its 100 per cent indigenous technology. The company was the biggest bidder in the recently-concluded 5G spectrum auction.
When, recently, Bharti Airtel announced a Rs 21,000 crore rights issue, analysts pointed out that its structure was similar to that of Reliance's issue in June 2020. One similarity is that shareholders in both companies have to pay only 25 per cent of the money on application. The rest is to be paid in two tranches. In Bharti Airtel's case, it is within 36 months; in Reliance Jio's, it is within 17 months.
Telecom major Jio will start the beta trial of 5G services in four cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Varanasi from October 5 with a select set of customers, the company said on Tuesday. The company will send invites to customers under 'Jio True 5G Welcome Offer' to try its 5G services and the subscribers will get Unlimited 5G data with up to 1 gigabit per second speed. "Post the successful demonstration of its True-5G services at the India Mobile Congress 2022, Jio is announcing the Beta trial of its True-5G services on the auspicious occasion of Dussehra, for Jio users in four cities - Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, and Varanasi," Jio said in the statement.
The Indian telecom market presented a picture of sharp contrast in May with Bharti Airtel losing a staggering 46.13 lakh wireless subscribers even as rival Reliance Jio added 35.54 lakh mobile users, according to data from telecom regulator Trai. Overall, the Indian mobile market shed 62.7 lakh users in May.
However, in the last few sessions, the stock of Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries Limited (RIL), hit its 52-week low level of Rs 2269.75, and has been one of the worst performers among the Sensex pack thus far in calendar year 2023 (CY23). Thus far in CY23, RIL has tanked nearly 11 per cent as compared to a fall of around 5 per cent in the S&P BSE Sensex. The fall in the stock, according to Gaurang Shah, senior vice-president at Geojit Financial Services is mostly due to the overall dip in the market sentiment, which in turn has impacted large-caps, including RIL.
Jio has accused incumbent telecom operators for not providing the required number of equipment to connect its mobile network with theirs
Cellular operators' body COAI had, last year, alleged that the new entrant Reliance Jio was attempting to acquire customers by offering connection loaded with freebies, in the guise of a trial launch.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has asked Vodafone Idea (Vi) to come back to it with a business plan soon in light of its decision not to launch 5G services for now (unlike its competitors Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel) and in view of its assessment of the possible impact of BSNL's impending launch of 4G in a few months and then 5G by August 15. "We are worried about Vi as we want to have three private players and one government player in the market. "The global trend now is to have two to three players.
As many as 2,000 chips are annually designed in India by semi-conductor and fabless companies, Intel India managing director Prakash Mallya said in a conversation with Business Standard. Mallya was reiterating the importance of India in the semi-conductor sweepstakes. "As much as 90 per cent of the semi-conductor companies have a design footprint in India.
Telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea on Tuesday submitted applications to participate in the Rs 3.92 lakh crore spectrum auction scheduled to start from March 1, according to official sources. This round of auction will be held for 2,251.25 Megahertz (MHz) in seven frequency bands -- 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz and 2500 Mhz -- at a cumulative base price of Rs 3.92 lakh crore. "Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have submitted applications (for the spectrum auction)," an official source told PTI.
In March this year, Worldline India launched Vabox (Voice Alert Box): merchants will now get instant audio alerts on the settlement of UPI (Unified Payments Interface) payments via QR codes in languages of their choice when customers check out. "They needn't worry whether the amount has been credited to their account," says Gulshan Pruthi, the firm's executive vice-president. The French payments giant will roll out 500,000 Vaboxes in the initial phase.
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