Bharti Airtel vice-chairman & managing director Gopal Vittal on Wednesday said while a call on exercising the option of converting pending spectrum dues into government equity would be taken by its board, the company had reached out to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to confirm whether it could do so. "On the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) conversion, it was simple.
Bharti Airtel is expected to see its highest revenue growth, and subscriber addition during the third quarter (October-December) of FY25 among telcos, said analysts. The telco's top line in Q3 may see the fastest sequential growth at 5 per cent compared to 3 per cent for Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi). Airtel's annual mobile revenue growth would rise to 16 per cent, IIFL Capital said in an analyst note.
Telecom tariffs are likely to come down further with the Telecom Regulatory Authority saying on Wednesday that it would recommend lower access deficit charge
The entire Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday was one against the hike in telecom rates but failed to elicit any assurance of a rollback from Telecom Minister Arun Shourie.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will announce on Saturday the revised basic telecom tariffs, including monthly rentals, call charges and the much-awaited interconnection charge.
The mobile tariffs in the world's cheapest telecom market are set to fall further by at least 20-25 per cent during the year, more so due to increasing number of telecom operators and infrastructure overcapacity.
Communication minister Arun Shourie on Monday apprised Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee of latest developments in the telecom sector including tariff revision, the issue which rocked the Parliament last week.
Under pressure from various political parties including key members of the NDA coalition, demanding roll-back in telecom tariff, Communications Minister Arun Shourie said on Friday the matter was for the prime minister to decide.
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Telecom tariffs set to fall significantly across the board as sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India announced on Wednesday a cut of more than 37 per cent in the levy paid by private players to BSNL.
The government on Thursday sought to erase the impression that the hike in tariffs for telecom services has been made to favour cellular and private WLL operators patronised by business and upper segments of society.
Reliance Industries Ltd, India's most valuable company, is back on a growth path after six months of challenges as it posted better than expected earnings in the December quarter, brokerages said.
For Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the September 2024 quarter (Q2FY25) may turn out to be yet another weak one as refining margins drag, say analysts. Two brokerage firms - ICICI Securities and Nuvama - expect a 1-13 per cent dip in reported profits in Q2FY25 from a year ago. Kotak Institutional expects a modest 2.2 per cent rise. Revenue, at best based on available analyst estimates, could rise up to 4 per cent.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Monday reported a 5 per cent fall in the net profit for the July-September quarter, as weak oil refining and petrochemical business hurt operational performance.
'A possible post-election growth momentum may be lost.'
Consolidated earnings for oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) may report sequential weakness, and modest year-on-year (Y-o-Y) growth in the June 2024 quarter (Q1FY25), said analysts. Lower refining margins are expected to moderate gains made from other businesses. RIL is slated to report its financial performance for Q1FY25 on July 19.
Weighed down by the oil-to-chemicals (O2C) business, Reliance Industries (RIL) results for the April-June quarter (Q1) of 2024-25 (FY25) missed Street estimates. A 14 per cent fall in the O2C segment's operating profit compared to the year-ago quarter and a 22 per cent sequential decline pulled down the consolidated performance. The O2C segment accounts for a third of the overall operating profit and about 60 per cent of the attributable consolidated profit.
Reliance Industries Ltd invested over $125 billion in the last ten years as it undertook massive expansion in hydrocarbon and telecom businesses, a report said, estimating that the conglomerate's investments in the next three years would be in relatively less capex-heavy retail and upstream new energy. Reliance is coming out of a series of long and intensive capex cycles (hydrocarbons and telecom).
The interconnection charge has been reduced.
Communications Minister Arun Shourie on Wednesday said rentals for landlines have not been increased neither in rural nor in urban areas by BSNL and MTNL.
Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) has written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) stating that a recent complaint against it by Bharti Airtel is a deliberate, malicious attempt at defaming RJIL's consumer-friendly tariff. RJIL has also asked the regulator to warn Airtel against 'making such frivolous complaints in the future'. The move is in response to Airtel recently requesting Trai to bring content aired through broadband under the regulatory fold and keep a check against discriminatory bundling tactics.
Burdened with debt, cutthroat competition and declining ARPUs, Bharti is the first of the telco biggies to raise prices. Others are likely to follow.
Trai chairman attributed predatory price as one of the key reasons for deteriorating condition of telecom industry.
Isha's stab at the bottom of the laptop pyramid shows she is a true Ambani.
In the show-cause notice, Trai said it is of the view that the claim of VIL for providing priority 4G network with faster data speeds is not in compliance with the extant regulatory framework.
The statement came a day after Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Ltd announced a hike in call and data charges from next month.
With a potential for a 10x growth in pre-tax profit from the business over the next decade, retail including e-commerce will be the next growth engine for Reliance Industries Ltd, Goldman Sachs said in a report. After growing 5x over FY16-FY20, RIL's core retail revenue growth has taken a pause in FY21 (April 2020 to March 2021) due to Covid related macro headwinds including lower footfalls. The oil-to-telecom conglomerate run by billionaire Mukesh Ambani used the period to build strong digital capabilities of the retail business while continuing to expand its physical reach.
The government should convert Vodafone Idea's (Vi) debt into equity to avoid a duopoly in the telecom sector, Deutsche Bank Research said in its report on Monday. This, the bank suggested, would be the only viable solution in the backdrop of the Supreme Court dismissing the telecom company's application for recomputation of adjusted gross revenue (AGR) dues.
Telecom tariffs in India can drop by 30-40 per cent more if the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India goes ahead with its planned cut in the access deficit charge (ADC).
Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal on Thursday said tariffs need to go up amid "tremendous stress" in the telecom sector, and Airtel will not hesitate to raise prices, but it will not do so unilaterally. The comments by the telecom czar came at a time when Airtel's rival Vodafone Idea has approached the government for a one-year moratorium on payment of spectrum instalment of over Rs 8,200 crore - due in April 2022. Cash-strapped VIL has told the telecom department that while it is working on raising new funding for the last six months, "investors are not willing to invest in the company because they believe that unless there is a significant improvement in consumer tariffs, the health of the industry will not recover and they will incur a loss on their investment".
'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.
Prepaid mobile customers in India has never had it so good. Vodafone, Idea, MTS & Aircel has confirmed that from Friday there will be only three types of vouchers for mobile recharge. Others too will have to follow soon.
Telecom operators have opposed sectoral regulator Trai's proposal to review the tariff policy, saying the current regime has appropriate regulatory measures to protect the interest of consumers.
Local and national SMS tariff has also been reduced by 75%
Trai on Monday put forward a consultation paper seeking views from the industry and experts on issues like permitting the internet service providers to have interconnection with landline and mobile telephones to provide internet telephony within the country. According to the existing licensing provisions, there is no restriction on international PC-to-PC calls through internet telephony.
While pay-per-second tariff plans seem attractive, there's a lot you need to know before switching over.
In a move that could bring down national and international telecom tariffs even further, telecom regulator TRAI on Monday sought views from industry and experts to liberalise Internet telephony segment.
The most marked development of the year was the Rs 10,000 crore (Rs 100 billion) Satyam financial scam, disclosed by the founder B Ramalinga Raju, forcing the government to redraft rules for corporate governance and auditing standards.
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