Jio Fiber Rollout: Kerala customers to migrate to new plans by month-end

Reliance Jio’s Fiber broadband’s trial customers in five cities in Kerala will be moved to the newly announced commercial plans by month-end, according to a company official, followed by an expansion of activities beyond these five locations. At present, Jio Fiber has around 5,000 customers in five cities — Trivandrum, Kochi, Calicut, Thrissur and Kannur. […]

FinMin spikes BSNL revival plan; no VRS, free 4G spectrum: report

The union finance ministry has rejected the Nripendra Misra committee report on plans to revive state-owned telecom operators BSNL and MTNL, including plans for a Rs 8,500 cr VRS package and ‘free’ 4G spectrum, Malayalam newspaper Mathrubhumi reported, quoting sources. The report, if correct, would make the condition of the state-owned telecom player precarious as […]

Kerala Electricity Board to offer free fiber internet

Kerala State Electricity Board, the public sector power distribution monopoly that is used by major broadband operators to hang their cables, has decided to start a fiber-to-the-home service on its own. The service, to be called K Fone, will also include a free-tier, which will come with limited data allowance and will be provided to […]

Sterlite Tech offers ‘intelligent network’ solution for fiber broadband players

Pune-based networking component manufacturer & servic provider Sterlite Technologies Ltd has unveiled an advanced and open standards-based software-based networking solution for fiber-based broadband providers. “With the programmable FTTx announcement, STL becomes one of very few companies in the world to have a software-defined network (SDN) solution for access connectivity,” it said. SHIFT TO SMART NETWORKS […]

Vodafone Idea starts Kerala roll out of Turbonet 4G from Kochi

Vodafone Idea, the biggest telecom operator in Kerala, has started rolling out its faster, integrated 4G service in the state, beginning with Kochi. Back in July, the company had put up posters in recharge outlets in the state promising that a faster, more powerful 4G service will be launched in August. However, the company has […]

JIO FIBER tariff plans unveiled; slightly costlier than expected

Reliance Jio has unveiled detailed prepaid tariff plans for its Jio Fiber broadband-cum-IPTV service. The plans start at Rs 699 per month (Rs 825 including 18% GST) for 100 GB and go and go all the way up to Rs 8,499. On the face of it, the plans are slightly more expensive than most people […]

Can Airtel Xstream’s open approach beat Jio’s walled garden?

When cellular telephony started in India, Bharti and Reliance took two divergent approaches towards launching cellular services — Airtel decided to focus on providing the services, leaving third party players to provide the hardware, while Reliance decided went with CDMA, a technology in which everything was more tightly controlled. Despite the obvious technological shortcomings of […]

Discovery sues TRAI again over latest move to cut TV channel prices

Discovery Communications, India’s biggest provider of infotainment content, has taken broadcasting regulator TRAI to the Delhi High Court for the second time in three years for trying to bring down prices of individual TV channels. TRAI had earlier this month announced a move to force channel owners to bring the prices of their individual channels […]

Reliance Jio will be 70% bigger than Airtel, Vod-Idea in 3 years-India Ratings

Reliance Jio, the start-up telecom operator, will become 70% bigger than current market leaders Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel in India in three years, India Ratings said. By FY22, Reliance Jio will have cornered 43.2% of the Indian telecom revenues, while Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel will have to be content with 25.4% each, the […]

Jio Fiber to start off on Sept 5, tariff starts at Rs 700

Jio Fiber services will start in 1,600 cities across India on September 5, starting at Rs 700 per month. The plans will go up to Rs 10,000 per month. Voice and video calls will be free. Customers can buy Jio Fiber connections from September 5. Those who are willing to pay for one year under […]

Jio’s Gigafiber Box, built on Android, will support some apps

Jio Box, the heart of the new GigaFiber service from Reliance Jio, is built on Android TV operating system and will support some third party apps, according to sources. However, it is not clear whether the box will support all apps that run on Android TV operating system and whether it will come with Google […]

Watch Live: Mukesh Ambani AGM speech to unveil Reliance GigaFiber plans

Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm and Reliance Industries, is all set to unveil attractive broadband-cum-TV plans under Reliance Gigafiber at the annual general meeting of Reliance Industries at 11 AM. The plans have been a well kept secret, but according to early indications, the company will offer free cable TV and 200 […]

Reliance Jio GigaFiber to offer free cable TV + broadband at Rs 500/month

Reliance Jio GigaFiber, the new wired broadband and cable TV service from India’s biggest telecom operator by volumes, is likely to offer free cable TV and high-speed broadband for Rs 500 per month. The customer is likely to have to make an initial upfront payment of around Rs 3,000, which would enable him to avail […]

Airtel to shut down 3G pan India, speed up 4G

Bharti Airtel, one of the top three telecom companies in India, said it plans to shut down its 3G network across India over the next six months. “We intend to shut down 3G services by december,” said CEO Gopal Vittal today, speaking to investors. The company has already shut down the 3G network in Kolkata, […]

Bharti Airtel sees continued improvement, revenue up 2.3%, DTH ARPU down 33%

Bharti Airtel’s India numbers indicated that the company did indeed hit the bottom in the December quarter of last year, and continued to improve its numbers from then on. Airtel, which had seen its India revenue fall to Rs 14,768 cr in the December quarter, had improved it to Rs 15,241 cr in the quarter […]

Vodafone Idea says 4G speed up 50-70%, but perception sticks

Vodafone Idea CEO Balesh Sharma today said the company had managed to increase the speeds of its 4G networks by 50-70% in around half of its circles where it has merged Idea and Vodafone networks together. However, said Sharma, the market is yet to fully appreciate the improvement in speeds because of the experience that […]

Vodafone Idea’s ‘minimum recharge plans’ starts to hurt

When Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel started cutting off the incoming call facility of low-spending customers around 4-5 months ago, the idea was to force these customers to stop using one of the SIM cards for incoming only. The idea was that if customers are forced to recharge their legacy numbers once every month for […]