Under the proposed GST regime, telcos will have significantly higher compliance costs due to multiple-state registrations.
'While consumers have benefited tremendously from rock-bottom telecom tariffs, the telecom sector has been reeling under deep financial stress,' points out Rajan S Mathews, director general, Cellular Operators Association of India.
The plethora of new pricing schemes from telecom companies, like 'one paisa per second' billing, has squeezed the margins of their business process outsourcing partners.
As metros are more or less saturated, telcos may be forced to look at smaller cities for growth.
Debt-saddled telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd's Rs 18,000 crore follow-on offering (FPO) opened to a modest response on Thursday with just 26 per cent of shares on offer being sought by investors. Of the 1,260 crore shares on offer, 331.24 crore was subscribed on Thursday, according to information on the BSE. Qualified institutional buyers picked up 61 per cent of their 360 crore shares reserved for them while non-institutional investors sought 28 per cent out of 270 crore shares earmarked for them.
Most brokerages are betting that the new government will shift to a policy focussing on boosting rural incomes and consumption since that has clearly been a pain point.
The Cabinet approved giving Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea Ltd and Reliance Jio an option to avail of a two-year moratorium on payments they were supposed to make in yearly installments for the spectrum bought in auctions.
Chinese telecom gear giant Huawei Technologies has sought permission for access to the government's 'Trusted Telecom Portal' which went live on June 15 so that it can share details about the telecom products which telecom service providers have agreed to buy from it. The move is significant as sources close to the development say that, according to Chinese telecom companies' interpretation, the new National Security Directive on the telecom sector does not in any way prohibit them from participating in the process of selling telecom equipment of any kind to private telcos. The firm is waiting for a response from the government. It declined to comment.
'The huge amount of investments being made by telcos in India for telecom gear, there is no way this demand could be met only by Europeans.' 'The Chinese are quick in installation and offer great value for money.'
Last week, the Supreme Court refused to grant interim relief to the operators.
From its lows this month, the stock of Bharti Airtel is up 14 per cent. The gains for the telco have come on the back of expectations that market share consolidation, tariff hike and lower capex should boost margins and profits. While the company is a key player in the Indian market, it also has a leadership position in major markets of Africa.
'We have informed the government multiple times that the situation in the US and India are different.' 'Here, there will be a 500 MHz gap in the frequencies which will safely allow aviation without interference.'
Most telcos say the speed will surpass fixed broadband as the 5G roll out, which is currently on 360,000 towers, crosses 400,000.
State-level reports every quarter for service quality and artificial intelligence-based solutions may be officially mandated as part of a set of more stringent, updated quality-of-service (QoS) norms by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) soon. The new norms will also factor in user experience for 5G networks, officials informed Business Standard. In February, Trai asked telecommunication (telecom) service providers (TSPs) to submit updates on measures taken to reduce call drops and lags and raise the quality of connection.
Telco spiraled to its 52-week high of Rs 193.60 on reports that the company has hiked its commercial vehicle production by 15-20% for June 2003.
Over the past 18 months, the number of caller tune subscribers, each paying Rs 30 a month for the service, has fallen from 100 million to 55 million.
In effect, companies which put their money in telecom in India would have done much better to keep the cash in bank and earn interest.
'The hiring in India will be primarily around skills in data engineering, AI, and product engineering.'
The market could see a fresh round of tariff war, similar to what happened in the voice market a few years ago.
Analyst are cautious about the performance of IT services sector from January to March quarter (Q4) of FY24 and the first half (H1) of FY25. While the Bloomberg consensus on revenue implies the market is expecting 2-3 per cent growth on a quarter-on-quarter (Q-o-Q) basis for the IT majors through FY25, the H1FY25 is likely to see even flatter returns, and Q4FY24 is likely to be poor. There is likely to be some recovery in the second half (H2FY25) but even so, there's a chance that the market will be overall disappointed.
India's largest truck maker, Tata Engineering & Locomotive Co Ltd, said on Wednesday its total vehicle sales in April jumped 55 per cent from a year ago to 14,979 units, despite a truckers strike.
Telco edged up 1.17% to Rs 185.80 early today as the latest figures show sales volumes have risen 67.9% in May 2003.
Telco pounded up the indices in early trades on Tuesday and much of the vigour came from the 24.3% rise in overall sales for January 2003 recorded by the company.
The telcos have assured the government that things would improve over the next 45 days.
Indian telecom operators have surpassed the three- year 5G network rollout target given to them within six months and now the government is making efforts to enhance adoption of 5G applications across various key segments, a senior government official said in Barcelona. Department of Telecom Additional Secretary VL Kantha Rao told PTI at "India Evening" event on the sidelines of Mobile World Congress 2023 that the government has hosted over 50 companies at the India pavilion and the delegation is here to showcase indigenously-developed 4G and 5G technology stack. "When the spectrum was allocated to telecom service providers for 5G rollout, we gave a minimum rollout obligation saying that within one year they have to cover a few cities within three years, a few towns and so on and so forth.
RBI's exercise will take into account standards of governance, the viability of the payment bank (PB) business model, and changes, if any, if needed.
The government on Wednesday imposed a condition on telcos that only those, who are ready with Mobile Number Portability, would be allowed to start new operations, a move that may restrict or delay launch of new services, including 3G.
Automaker Tata Engineering & Locomotive Co Ltd said on Monday its total vehicle sales in May vaulted 67.9 per cent from a year ago to 21,929 units, boosted by higher car sales.
Decades of military rule kept the country closed to foreign investors.
The telcos have been offering 3G services through roaming agreements among themselves.
Under these rules, telecom gear makers have to share their source codes and get their equipment tested by third-party labs accredited to the government.
This comes on the heels of the department of telecom appointing private auditors to look into the books of telcos after it was detected that some of the operators were diverting revenues in segments which attracted lower licence fee.
Govt petition separated from others, to be heard in open court on Apr 13
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had told Parliament in November that Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and other telecom companies owe the government as much as Rs 1.47 lakh crore in past statutory dues.
Companies have activated a comprehensive pandemic response plan with requisite risk mitigation protocols for keeping networks working as telecom is an essential service.
As per the Indian laws, foreign companies can own up to 74 per cent stake and thus they would be required to form a joint venture with an Indian company before starting the services, Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behura told reporters. The foreign players want DoT to allow them to bid as 100 per cent foreign entities or give them a minimum of six to seven months after announcement of bidding details to enable them form JV with Indian firms before the spectrum is auctioned.
Tata Consultancy Services-led consortium has bagged a Rs 15,000-crore contract from BSNL to deploy 4G network for the state-run telco. In a statement, TCS said it has received an "advance purchase order" valued over Rs 15,000 crore from BSNL.
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