The wait for the nationwide launch of Reliance Jio’s wired broadband service, Gigafiber, continued to drag on, with the company today saying that it has reached the ‘final stages’ of its beta testing for the service. The service has been available to test users in cities like Mumbai nearly three years now. “Ongoing beta trials […]
Brickwork Ratings has downgraded the credit rating of India’s largest telecom operator by subscribers, Vodafone Idea, due to the sharp shrinkage seen in the company’s user base in the last six months. The company’s subscriber base has fallen by a whopping 21% between September last year and March this year, going from 42.23 cr (422 […]
The government of India is exploring legal options to see if it can get back the spectrum assigned to bankrupt telecom operator Reliance Communications, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said. Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications has three types of spectrum — GSM spectrum in the 1800 MHz band that it got along with its license, spectrum […]
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the state-owned telecom operator, is likely to take loans of around Rs 6,100 cr this year, on top of the Rs 6,500 cr it took in the year ended March. According to the ministry of communications, BSNL has sought permission to borrow Rs 3,306 cr from the market to buy equipment […]
The total number of 4G base stations in India has more or less doubled in the last 18 months to 1.26 million, according to numbers from the Department of Telecom. Against 6,76,462 4G base stations as of December 1, 2017, India had 12,62,841 (1.26 million) 4G base stations as of June 1, 2019. During the same […]
Government of India plans to give 4G-suitable spectrum in three LTE bands to BSNL and MTNL as part of a plan to revive their operations, Minister of Communications Ravi Shankar Prasad announced on Thursday. Prasad said the two public sector companies have requested spectrum in the 800 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2100 MHz bands to […]
Bharti Airtel has made ring-back tones or caller tunes free for anyone with a monthly plan of Rs 129 or above. The service used to be charged at Rs 36 per month and lets users specify a song or sound-track of their choice for callers to hear, instead of the regular brr brr. The move […]
Bharti Airtel today said it has become the first telecom operator to launch 4G services in Lakshadweep, a group of islands off the coast of Kerala. The company has launched its 4G network on the islands of Agatti, Bangaram and Kavaratti. “It will be gradually expanded to other islands of the archipelago,” it promised. It […]
Bharti Airtel said its unit Airtel Africa has “informed it of its intention to proceed with an IPO” that could raise up to $863 million. The IPO will be sized at $750 million, with a greenshoe option of 15%. Greenshoe option refers to the facility given to the underwriters to an IPO to buy extra […]
SoftBank Corp., one of the top telecom firms in Japan, has selected Nokia as “a strategic partner” to roll out its 5G network. The move is significant as non-Chinese companies, including Nokia and Ericsson, are generally seen as more expensive compared to Chinese players like Huawei and ZTE. Due largely to this price differential, Huawei […]
Bharti Airtel said it will merge its VSAT business with the VSAT business of Hughes Communications India Ltd, with HCIL holding a majority stake in the resulting business. VSAT refers to the provision of data services using satellites, and is used extensively by banks and ATMs. “The combined entity will be able to introduce new […]
Bharti Airtel has introduced a competitor to Youtube, which accounts for more than half of India’s mobile internet consumption, with the launch of Wynk Tube — a Youtube like app that will focus more on music and music videos. Unlike Youtube, which does not let its free users switch to an audio only mode, Wynk […]
One of the key aspects of the new tariff order of the TRAI that came into effect from February 1 was the uniformity of pricing among channels. The distributor — a cable or DTH operator — had to charge the same network fee for any channel, irrespective of content or ownership. So, whether it was […]
Telecom operator Bharti Airtel updated its TV app by adding a new section for election coverage and incorporating content from the ‘Editor Ji’ platform founded by former NDTV CEO Vikram Chandra. Airtel TV app users will now have access to exclusive election news bulletins from the video news app, Editor Ji, which is funded by […]
Bharti Airtel said it will offer solutions from US-based networking company CISCO to its enterprise and SMB customers. Two solutions — Software-Defined Wide Area Network (SD-WAN) and Cisco-Webex conferencing solution — will be offered. Financial details of the deal were not disclosed. The software-defined Wide Area Network solution will provide customers with “a clear view […]
Vodafone’s cellular network in Mumbai was down for several hours today in many parts of the city, according to reports from affected customers. “It looks like the problem has affected people between Ghatkopar to Thane,” said a Vodafone customer from Ghatkopar. “At least, that’s what I can tell from reports on the WhatsApp groups I […]
Reliance Industries said it has agreed to acquire 87% of Mumbai-based artificial intelligence company Haptik Infotech for Rs 700 cr, including an initial payment of Rs 230 cr. Reliance Industries said the technology will be used to bring artificial intelligence-based offerings on Reliance Jio, the telecom and digital arm of the group. “This strategic investment […]
Consumers of Vodafone 4G, one of the two 4G networks operated by Vodafone Idea, have seen a multi-fold increase its speed in recent days, thanks to the deployment of fresh spectrum won by Idea Cellular in 2016. In recent days, Vodafone and Idea users in the state have started getting access to ultra-fast 4G on […]
Vodafone Idea said it has priced its rights issue at Rs 12.50 per share. The offer price of Rs 12.50 per share represents a discount of 31% over the post-issue, weighted average price of Rs 18.09 per share, assuming that the company manages to sell all the shares it wants to under the rights issue. […]
Tata Communications has tied up with China Telecom to allow the latter to launch IoT services across the world using the Indian provider’s network. Tata Communications, formerly known as VSNL, is one of the world’s largest Tier I network, which has touchpoints with nearly all other networks in the world. The tie-up will allow China […]
