Vodafone Idea, India’s No.1 telecom operator by subscribers and revenue, said it will increase its 4G network capacity by 50% in four months, largely by redeploying existing 4G equipment to avoid duplication. The move would also increase the coverage of Vodafone Idea’s 4G signals by about 30% compared to the present. “We are looking at […]
Vodafone Idea, India’s No.1 telecom operator, said it has decided to withdraw all existing recharges and replace them with five coupons with specific validity. The recharge balance has to be used within the validity period, or it will be lost. With this, a customer has to spend at least Rs 35 per month to keep […]
Infosys, the Bangalore-based technology company, announced it would create 1,200 jobs in Australia and open three new ‘innovation hubs’ by 2020. The company said 40% of the jobs will be filled with Australian university graduates from areas like computer science and design. This is part of the company’s efforts to broad-base its workforce by opening […]
Kadakampally Surendran, the Kerala minister in charge of Devaswom affairs, called the move by Hindu groups to confine Trupti Desai to the Cochin Airport ‘barbaric’ and wondered if it was part of a conspiracy by the Sangh Parivar. He said Desai is close to both the BJP and the Congress in Maharashtra, and that it […]
Mahindra & Mahindra, the second largest Indian automaker, today announced the launch of Treo, a range of electric three-wheelers priced at Rs 1.36 lakh onwards with a range of 170 km per charge. Unlike other affordable electric vehicles such as bikes, the Treo uses the costly lithium ion battery to reduce weight and increase its […]
Supreme Court of India of India has agreed to hear the Sabarimala age-restriction matter once again, prompting the Kerala law minister to say that the state government will maintain status quo at the site. It will take up the matter on January 22, after the current pilgrimage season, for detailed hearing. It is not yet […]
Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries group, today said that his company is working on creating a pan-India e-commerce platform that will help small, offline shops compete with players like Amazon and Flipkart. The platform will work by making the inventory of small shops available for purchase online using a sophisticated web and app interface […]
Dish TV said it is looking at bundling its DTH plans with broadband plans from other players. “..that is certainly on the cards looking at partnership with different broadband players that will happen as required,” said Managing Director Jawahar Goel in an interaction with investors after the company’s results announcement for the second quarter. The […]
Adding to the headache of the Kerala state government in the Sabarimala matter, Pune-based women’s rights activist Trupti Desai said today that the she is planning to visit the shrine later this month. “The temple will open on 17 November. I will soon write a letter to the SP [of police] and the CM [chief […]
Kerala BJP state president Sreedharan Pillai has been shown bragging in a leaked video that the recent agitation by Ayyappa devotees in the temple courtyard was set off by a BJP worker, and that he considers the issue the ‘golden opportunity’ that the party has been waiting for in Kerala. Speaking at a convention of […]
Rehana Fathima, the women’s rights activist who came closer than anyone else towards entering the Dharma Shastha temple Sabarmala has said she was motivated to undertake the controversial pilgrimage by her desire to know more about the worship of Ayyappa. “I am extremely interested in knowing the essence of all religions. That is how I […]
Bharti Airtel said shareholders of Airtel Africa Ltd, which houses the Indian company’s operations in 14 African countries, have constituted a board of directors, including Bharti Airtel Chairman Sunil Mittal and his son Shravin Bharti Mittal. Others appointed to the board include both Airtel representatives as well as those of big private equity players who invested […]
Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the ideological mentor of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, today came out strongly against the Supreme Court’s decision four days ago not to conduct an expedited hearing into the Ram Temple-Babri Masjid issue. Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi had resisted pressure from pro-temple activists on Tuesday to complete the hearing before general elections […]
Bharti Airtel overtook the combined Vodafone-Idea entity in mobile broadband users in August due to a steep, 20% fall in Vodafone India’s wireless broadband users in the month. The sharp decline of 12.5 mln mobile broadband users on Vodafone’s network in August was at odds from the usual course, when the company used to add […]
India’s biggest billionaire and chairman of telecom operator Reliance Jio said today his company is rolling out fiber connectivity in 1,500 cities in India — an apparent uptick from the 1,100 cities announced four months ago. Pointing out that India is ranked at 134th in the global ranking for fixed broadband penetration, Ambani said Jio is determined to […]
Bharti Airtel today denied a Bloomberg report that said that the company has delayed the IPO of its Africa unit. “We would like to categorically state that Airtel Africa IPO preparations are proceeding as per plan and there is no change in plans,” the Indian telco said in a statement. “[A] new board is in place […]
GTPL Hathway, the Gujarat-based subsidiary of Hathway Datacom, said it, along with Polycab Wires, has won a Rs 1,245.77 cr order to connect 3,767 gram panchayats as part of the BharatNet project of the central government. The companies have to lay 17,000 kms of fiber as part of the contract. The order is for part of Saurashtra region […]
Bharti Airtel said it has stopped the policy of allowing users to continue on its network even if they spend nothing on outgoing calls and use their numbers only for receiving incoming calls. The company said it has done this by removing many of its existing prepaid vouchers and plans, and replacing them with ‘minimum […]
Bharti Airtel today said that it was ‘open to’ partnering with cable operators to get access to last mile connections to customers for its broadband service. “We would be open to looking at partnerships to expand our access to the last mile,” said CEO Gopal Vittal. The comment came in the context of Reliance Jio […]
The pain for Bharti Airtel’s mobile business does not seem to be over, with the company’s India mobile revenue declining further in the September to a new low, belying expectations that it had hit bottom two quarters ago. Total India mobile revenue fell 2.2% on quarter to Rs 10,252 cr during the quarter. This means […]
