RailWire introduces new plans at cheaper rates

RailWire, the wired service from Indian Railways’ RailTel Corp, has announced a set of new plans offering more data for lower monthly subscription amounts. The move comes less than a month after BSNL introduced new plans in the low-tariff category. The highlight of the new RailWire plans is the new 50 Mbps, which is priced […]

HFCL to become 5G supplier, sets up dedicated unit

Telecom equipment and services provider HFCL Ltd said it plans to offer 5G equipment and turnkey services, marking a move up from its roots as a telecom contractor. The company, which has in recent years successfully diversified into manufacturing — particularly of fiber optic cables and terminal devices — said its new 5G network services […]

BSNL opens 449 fiber plan to everyone, Kerala Vision unveils new tariff

Kerala Vision, the ISP with the largest network in Kerala, has unveiled a new set of tariffs, after its primary competitor BSNL converted its 449 promotional scheme into a regular scheme with unlimited validity. BSNL last week converted its 449 promotional broadband scheme — which was initially valid only for six months — into a […]

Vodafone Idea denies reports on fiber asset sale

Vodafone Idea today said it is not considering any proposal to sell its fiber optic assets, data centers and You Broadband for $1 billion, as reported by Economic Times newspaper. However, responding to a different media report on the sale of its datacenter business and assets, it said these were not material enough for their […]

Pakistani group launches widespread phishing attack on Indians: ITSec firm

Seqrite, a cybersecurity consultant and the enterprise arm of Quick Heal Technologies, said a suspected Pakistani group has started a wave of sophisticated phishing attacks targeting India’s cricial infrastructure such as power and telecom. According to the IT security consultant, the initial intrusion chain begins with a spear-phishing email — an email that is designed […]

Vodafone Idea CEO says daily data plans make no sense

Vodafone Idea CEO Ravinder Takkar has urged competitors Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio to gradually move away from daily data plans, and said such plans made ‘no sense’ as consumers don’t use data uniformly. Daily data or unlimited plans were introduced by Reliance Jio as part of its Welcome Offer when it launched its services […]

RailWire promises tough fight to Jio, Airtel

Railtel Corporation of India, the telecom unit of Indian Railways, said it does not expect to lose subscribers to rival operators like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, even as it promised to take its RailWire services to even the tiniest of towns this year. RailTel Chairman and Managing Director Punit Chawla said his company is […]

Amazon starts Fire TV broadband service in India

Amazon has expanded its Fire brand of devices and software to the service sector with the launch of its Fire TV Hotspot broadband service in India. The company started offering Fire TV branded broadband connectivity in the Indian city of Mumbai — making it possibly the only one in the world to get Amazon branded […]

HT Media group’s ad-for-equity portfolio crosses Rs 500 cr

The Hindustan Times group, which runs a similarly named English newspaper and the Hindi daily Hindustan, said its total investment in various companies under its ‘ad for equity’ scheme has crossed the Rs 500 cr mark. Most large media houses in India offer a fixed amount of ad inventory in return for equity of the […]

BPO provider HGS rides COVID wave to record profit

Hinduja Global Solutions, one of India’s top pure-play business process outsourcing companies, has been able to turn the massive challenge posed by COVID lock-down restrictions into an opportunity, posting record profits for the year. Like many organizations that depend on thousands of staff working inside a single building, Hinduja Global Solutions found its working model […]

Airtel sells Tanzania towers for Rs 1,280 cr

Bharti Airtel said its Africa unit, Airtel Africa, has sold around 1,400 telecom towers in Tanzania to a joint venture company of SBA Communications Corp and Paradigm Infrastructure Ltd for $175 mn, or around Rs 1,280 cr. SBA Communications Corp is a leading global independent owner and operator of wireless communications infrastructure, while Paradigm is […]

Delhi Police says we only want info from Twitter

Delhi Police today said it only wanted to ask Twitter for any information the company had about the so-called manipulation of a ‘toolkit’ that was allegedly prepared by the main opposition party, Indian National Congress. It also accused Twitter of refusing to hand over “material evidence” about manipulation of the photographs contained in some BJP […]

Cable operators boost Bharti Airtel’s broadband growth

Bharti Airtel’s new strategy of tying up with cable operators has helped the company significantly speed up subscriber acquisitions in its wired broadband business and narrow the gap with Reliance Jio, which continues to be India’s fastest growing provider. Since introducing a new, collaborative model of joint roll-out with cable operators, Bharti Airtel’s monthly wired […]

Lockdown blues spells boon for matrimony sites

COVID-19 season has failed to make any dent in the growth of India’s matchmaking websites such as Matrimony.com, the largest. Going by the numbers, youngsters in the country seem to be finding more time for online matching making services during the COVID-19 era than ever before. In a year when most companies have seen double-digit […]

GTPL’s Android smart box ready with manufacturer

GTPL Hathway, one of India’s largest cable feed provider and last-mile operator, said its much-delayed Android set-top-box originally scheduled be launched a year ago, is in the final stages of production and expected to reach the company by end of this month. It was in mid last year that the company announced that its Android […]

GTPL to provide broadband via LCOs in 2 months

GTPL Hathway, one of India’s top five wired broadband providers, said it will start distributing its high-speed broadband service through local cable operators in the next two months. The company, whose broadband service is currently restricted to towns and cities, will also make the service available in thousands of gram panchayats across Gujarat by leveraging […]

Den Networks caps a year of declining sales, profits

Den Networks, a prominent Indian cable feed provider that is now part of the Reliance Industries group, today reported a set of disappointing financial performance numbers, capping a year of pain and degrowth. The company’s subscription revenue, which is overwhelmingly composed of the monthly subscription fees paid by cable TV subscribers, fell to 190 cr […]

Bharti Airtel restructures: Digital comes in, telecom goes out

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel seems to have borrowed a leaf from rival Reliance Jio in announcing a restructuring of its business that puts its digital business at center stage, while moving the pipe or connectivity business to a separate, wholly owned subsidiary. This is the opposite of how things stand now. At present, the connectivity […]

IoT: Vodafone Idea wants to become techco, not just telco

Vi Business, the enterprise arm of Vodafone Idea Ltd. (VIL), said it has taken a crucial step towards turning itself into a techco from being a telco for its enterprise customers. It has become only telecom company in India to offer a secure end-to-end IoT solution offering that comprises connectivity, hardware, network, application, analytics, security […]