Reliance Industries on Friday reported more than doubling of its March quarter net profit to Rs 13,227 crore as improvement in petrochemical and consumer business countered continued weakness in refining business.
Do you think Maran's resignation will hit the telecom industry?
The communications ministry is of the view that telecom tariffs in India can fall further to almost half their current levels - with local intra-circle calls for 25 paise and nationwide long distance calls for 50 paise - provided new operators are allowed to start services.
Mobile subscribers are in for a bonanza as telecom tariffs are set to come down by at least 25-30 per cent by the year-end. Factors such as a fall in the availability of international bandwidth, entry of new licencees and mobile virtual network operators, and the move to permit unrestricted Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) telephony will help bring down the tariffs.
Among other segments, home broadband subscriptions have picked up and the virtual private network service, too, increased by around 15 per cent.
At present, in BSNL and MTNL, there is no such proposal for reduction of landline call charges and mobile roaming charges, officials of both the companies said.
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.
The government is likely to offer a slew of tax sops to telecom operators, including asking state governments not to levy sales tax on telecom services, seven years of exemption of revenue sharing on revenues from rural subscribers, etc.
Big three telecom companies term Jio's free voice calls predatory pricing
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Friday recommended lowering spectrum charges paid by service providers to the government to 4% from 6% -- a move which may further bring down telecom tariffs.
Further telecom tariff reduction is on the anvil as department of telecom is in the process of issuing direction to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to come out with the revenue-share based access deficit charge.
The telecom regulator announced on Saturday a review of the Inter-connect User Charge regime, while permitting operators to implement tariff packages after a "self-check".
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India would enforce the requirement of reporting of tariff at least five days in advance of implementation.
Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Tuesday showered words of praise on Pradip Baijal, chairman, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India saying he has done a great job, especially in reducing telecom tariffs.
Telecom regulator TRAI on Thursday announced a substantial cut in levy accrued to state-owned BSNL at Rs 3,200 crore (Rs 32 billion) from over Rs 5,000 crore (Rs 50 billion) and shifted to revenue share regime from per call basis.
The prevailing telecom tariffs are likely to undergo a change with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday announcing its much-awaited revised interconnect charges for the sector.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Tuesday said that it would not intervene in the ongoing telecom tariff war across different services, saying this increases the competition in the sector.
TRAI has mandated a 6-month validity period for tariff plans.
The telecom regulatory authority released on Thursday a consultation paper on the IUC regime covering key issues like telecom tariffs and Calling Party Pays regime.
Admitting that its recent order reducing pulse rate of fixed line telephony would increase the cost of accessing internet, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday said it would address the issue but refused to review its directive per se.
State-run BSNL on Friday said it will not raise rural telecom tariffs but will reduce some of the development expenditure in those areas to bridge the financial loss of Rs 1,254 crore (Rs 12.54 billion) caused by the latest Access Deficit Charge regi
Reliance has significant investments in telecom, consumer retail and media businesses in India.
Telecom Minister Arun Shourie said that TRAI would have to 'balance' various aspects while examining the tariff proposals, and expressed the hope that the issue would be sorted out soon.
Jio has been allocated spectrum in 28 gigahertz to run 5G trials.
While only 78.15 per cent of Jio's total subscriber base was active, Airtel boasts of 98.14 per cent active customers.
During the month, inflation in vegetables shot up to 35.99 per cent, as against 26.10 per cent in October. Likewise, the prices of cereals and eggs grew at a faster pace of 3.71 per cent.
Devoting an hour of his speech at the RIL's 42th annual general meeting, the billionaire industrialist said Jio was targeting 100 million users in a shortest possible time
The Sunil Mittal led firm accused the regulator of "wrongly" holding Jio's promotional offer as compliant with the regulatory guidelines
Who is to take their place? Will a new generation of entrepreneurs start up with better business sense, or at least better luck? But the so-called unicorns are mostly copy-cat entrepreneurs whose cash flow is funded by overseas (including Chinese) money, notes T N Ninan.
When on October 24, the Supreme Court, on a petition moved by the government, ordered payment of past dues according to its new definition of AGR, the country's second-biggest carrier Vodafone-Idea Ltd warned of shut down if no relief is given. The total dues for the industry ran into a whopping Rs 1.47 lakh crore. For an industry that has come from 7-8 operators to just three private players and state-owned fourth operator, the warning by Vodafone-Idea sounded like a death knell.
'The no-rate cut policy and preference to wait for the Budget and clarity on the fiscal front demonstrate RBI Governor Shaktikanta Das is maturing in his new role,' notes Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Reliance announced energy asset sales worth around $ 16 billion; end of the investment cycle in telecom; bringing net-debt to zero in 18 months; value-unlocking options for real estate and financial assets; listing of telecom and retail in five years; and focus on dividends.
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