Aircel executives said the company could offer value to big boys like Airtel or Jio as a low-end mobile services brand
In an interview to PTI, Raja said his ministry would keep a vigil on these players and on their plans to start operations (50 per cent in the first year of spectrum allotment). Raja's assertion has come at a time when he is faced with criticism following the high-value stake-sale of two new telcos -- Unitech Wireless and Swan Telecom -- who are yet to start services.
The economic slowdown may have raised the spectre of job losses in most industries, but telecom is a notable exception. Far from cutting back, telecom companies expect to hire over 16,000 people, 15 to 20 per cent more than last year, to meet the unprecedented expansion in subscriber numbers, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India, the association for GSM service providers.
The broad idea was endorsed by the DoT's internal panel in its report on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations last year on spectrum management and other licensing issues.
The auction for the 5G spectrum is likely to take place around April-May next year, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday. While relief measures announced in September this year for telecom operators marked the first set of reforms, the government will bring out a series of further reforms and "telecom regulatory structure should change in coming 2-3 years", Vaishnaw said. Speaking at the 'Times Now Summit 2021', the minister said India's telecom sector regulation has to be benchmarked with the global best, and added that "so, we will come with a series of reforms in this, such that the global benchmark of regulations is achieved in India".
It has invested $2 billion and spent $200 million on its R&D centre in Bengaluru, the largest such centre outside China where some core technologies are under development.
Telecom companies (Airtel, Vodafone, ABNL-via Idea Cellular), which enjoy larger reach, appear to be better placed among the key companies bagging payments bank licences.
Mobile Telecommunications Company (Zain), the third largest telecom operator in West Asia and a leading operator in Africa, has initiated talks with several Indian telecom service providers to buy stakes.
With the Beijing Olympics 2008 starting from Friday, three of the major Indian telecom service providers Reliance Communications, BPL Mobile and Tata Communications are launching services aimed at tapping the communication potential of the event.
Speculations are rife in the local media about MTN's next move after the failure of talks with two Indian entities RCOM and Bharti Airtel for a possible merger, with some saying that the South African telecom major might now target other telecom operators from India.
The Institute of Chartered Accountants of India is in the process of clarifying the procedure for accounting of these peculiar transactions for which there is no precedence."We will issue explanations and clarifications as to how to record certain transactions which are innovative in nature," ICAI President Ved Jain told PTI.
With their net debt estimated at Rs 1.15 trillion, the merged entity will not be in much of a position to dole out freebies, says Romita Majumdar.
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.
Chargesheets will be filed against former telecom minister A Raja and two companies by March 31 for their alleged involvement in the 2G spectrum allocation case, the Central Bureau of Investigation told the Supreme Court on Wednesday, which asked the agency to appoint a suitable senior advocate as special public prosecutor in the trial.
Sibal discussed issues ranging from spectrum sharing, merger and acquisition, annual spectrum usage charge and rising disputes among the telecom firms.
he meeting is part of Sibal's efforts to achieve the 100-day plan for reforms in the telecoms sector in consultation with the industry.
Mittal said he discussed a plethora of issues with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and sought the government's support for faster clearances to streamline the group's investment plans.
The government has collected over Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) in penalties from new telecom service providers that failed to roll-out their networks within the stipulated timeframe after getting licences and spectrum.
According to reports, CAG has sought details from the department of telecommunication on the total available spectrum in the country and how much has been allocated to private telecom operators from 2000 onward and at what value.
Facebook has over 600 million users worldwide while Twitter has slightly over 175 million users with 95 million tweets daily.
Auto major Tata Engineering has raised $90 million with a greenshoe option of $10 million by issuing foreign currency convertible bonds.
New operators, including Uninor, MTS, STel, Etisalat DB and Videocon, which were given unified access service (UAS) licences in 2008, have together captured 14 per cent of the incremental share in addition of new subscribers over the last one year.
The operators believe that the industry is not ready for these services, even though such plans are good for users in Singapore. The service charges in the country are already lowest in the world and will not slide further for sometime. Moreover, this is also against the existing practice of an operator trying to match every scheme launched by competitors.
The nationwide implementation will increase churn of customers, shoot-up the customer acquisition and retention costs, and lower the average revenue per user as competitive tariff plans will have to be offered, the agency said in a note.
The Supreme Court on Thursday directed the Central Bureau of Investigation to go ahead with its outgoing Director A P Singh's view on the prosecution of telecom companies, their officials and public servants on the allocation of excess 2G spectrum during the National Democratic Alliance regime when late Pramod Mahajan was the telecom minister.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have demanded allocation of a part of CDMA spectrum in 800 Mhz band for GSM services.
India's largest truck-maker, Tata Engineering and Locomotive Co Ltd, said on Monday its vehicle sales in January in the domestic market jumped 29 per cent from a year earlier to 23,316 units.\n\n\n\n
The government has suffered a loss of Rs 12,488.93 crore (Rs 124.88 billion) due to under-invoicing of gross revenue by six telecom companies including Reliance Communications, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, the CAG said in a damning report on Friday.
Spectrum qualifies for the infrastructure criteria, say ministry officials.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman J S Sarma said his recommendation to tweak the existing norms for mergers and acquisitions aims to prevent the union of two big companies or a big and a medium-sized operator, but it provides enough scope for mergers between others.
Tensions between private telecom players and the government ratcheted up a notch after it was discovered that state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd was given additional spectrum of up to 10 MHz for GSM technology services in over 16 circles even as private competitors have been waiting to be allotted spectrum by the Department of Telecommunications since December 2006.
Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Friday said the mobile phone operators must move from voice-based revenue model and customers should gradually be charged only for data services and not for making calls.
Indian telecom companies are investing over Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion) in 2007-08 to finance a massive expansion of their mobile networks, infrastructure and subscriber numbers.
The government has asked the mobile operators to give self certificates stating that radiations emitted by their towers are not harmful for human health, else face penalty as per prescribed norms.
The companies are looking at tapping solar power, wind energy and bio-fuels, including fish and vegetable oil, to run base transceiver systems in areas with poor power supply.
The government is concerned about the spyware and malware associated with imported telecom gear. India had demanded that global telecom gear makers place source codes and design elements in an escrow account.
Telecommunication companies buying airwaves in an Indian auction next month will pay 5 per cent of their revenue as an annual fee.
Sensex rally was driven by Bajaj FinServ, Reliance Industries, Bajaj Finance, ICICI Bank, HDFC and Axis Bank. NSE Nifty climbed 326.50 points to end at 15,245.60.
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