Bharti Airtel is likely to clearly beat Vodafone in India in terms of growth as it has increased its spectrum lead over the No. 2 player after the recent auctions, broker CLSA said. According to CLSA, Bharti now has 18% of the total operator spectrum in India, while Vodafone has only about 11%. In the […]
Reliance Communications, one of India’s largest telecom companies, is offering India’s cheapest call rate – 25 paise per minute – for both STD and local calls for subscribers of its CDMA service. The offer, called ‘Diwali Dhamaka’ is available in most circles. In certain circles, however, the call rate is 30 paise per minute. In […]
Broker Credit Suisse said most Indian telecom companies have absorbed the impact of higher service tax on their accounts, instead of passing it on to customers by raising the price of vouchers. “Our quick checks on tariff changes over the last couple of days suggest that telcos have largely absorbed the recent increase in service […]
Bharti Airtel, India’s biggest telecom company, will raise funds by issuing ten-year, dollar-denominated bonds, the company said in a statement. The bonds are expected to be listed on the Singapore Stock Exchange, it said. They will be senior debt, but will be unsecured against the company’s assets. Bharti Airtel recently completed a long-drawn spectrum auction […]
Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd. (SSTL), which operates its telecom services under the MTS brand in India, said its non-voice revenue have now started contributing over half, or 51.1%, of its total revenue in India. With this, SSTL has become the first operator to achieve this milestone. Other operators such as Idea Cellular get only about […]
Coolpad Group, also known as Coolpad Dazen, has chosen Snapdeal as its official and exclusive partner for its India entry, giving the Delhi-based e-commerce player a crucial victory in its fight against bigger peers Amazon and Flipkart. Flipkart has landed most of the exclusive launches in India, and according to our estimate, has a market […]
Uninor beat bigger peers by adding a total of 1.17 mln subscribers, translating to a month-on-month growth of 2.6%, in April. In terms of the absolute number, however, Uninor was third, after Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular, in the month. In all, a total of 6.35 mln subscribers were added during April, a slight decline […]
The main argument put forward by telecom operators in the ongoing net neutrality consultation with regulator TRAI is that they are forced to pay a lot of levies, which the apps do not pay any of them. This, according to the service providers, creates a ‘non level playing field’ and therefore, the app providers, such […]
Idea Cellular has warned that companies like itself will have to raise data prices to 108-250 paise/MB (Rs 1,105-2,560 per GB) if government imposes net neutrality on wireless providers. This would required as voice call rates will fall to 7.5 paise per minute if net neutrality is allowed in the current situation, Idea Cellular said. […]
With the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India removing termination charges for calls from landlines, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has announced that its landline users can make unlimited calls to any network in India from 9 pm till 7 am. This is, by far, the cheapest such scheme available in India. Usually, companies charge around […]
Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent said they were merging their operations into one company, answering the speculation that Nokia may buy out the wireless business of the French company. The announcement comes just a day after Nokia confirmed talks with Alcatel. The two companies have entered into a memorandum of understanding under which Nokia will make an […]
Nokia and Alcatel Lucent have confirmed that they are talks for a merger. In a statement, Nokia said: “In relation to recent media speculation Nokia and Alcatel-Lucent confirm that they are in advanced discussions with respect to a potential full combination, which would take the form of a public exchange offer by Nokia for Alcatel-Lucent. […]
Yesterday was that many Indian smartphone vendors such as Micromax, Spice Mobility, Lava and Xolo would remember. It was yesterday that Lenovo proved that it’s low-priced 4G phone, the A6000, was no flash in the pan like Xiaomi Mi3, but that it intended to follow through and put up the capable A7000 as proof of […]
e-commerce in India is set to cross $16 billion in sales by the end of this year, according to an ASSOCHAM- Deloitte joint study released today. The digital commerce market in India has grown steadily from $4.4 billion in 2010 to $13.6 billion in 2014 and likely to touch $16 billion by the end of […]
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has directed Vodafone to stop using 111 as its customer care number. The authority pointed out that such a number was not in consonance with the national numbering plan. The numbering plan did not have any place for three digit customer care numbers. Currently three digit numbers, such as […]
A Change.org petition on preserving net neutrality in India is arguably the fastest growing Indian petitions on the global campaigning site ever in terms of sign ups. As of now, the petition is getting around 3,000-4,000 supporters every ten minutes, and has completed its target of getting 25,000 signatures. The initial target is likely to […]
Qualcomm Inc and Bharti Airtel Africa have launched a cheap 3G smartphone meant for Africa costing just $53 (Rs 3,275) before taxes. “The device will start selling from $53 subject to various governments levies and will be available at local retail outlets,” Airtel said. The 3G new enabled phone has a memory of 4GB ROM […]
Reliance Communications has started offering free access to its customers to a select group of around 33 websites free of charge to its subscribers. It was not clear whether the ‘free Internet’ platform from Reliance Communications is open to all websites free of charge, or only for those websites who are willing to pay the […]
Bharti Airtel Limited today announced its audited consolidated IFRS results for the third quarter ended December 31, 2014. The consolidated revenues for Q3’15 at Rs 23,217 crore grew by 5.8% over the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated Mobile data revenues at Rs 2,872 crore grew by 61.9% Y-o-Y, uplifted by higher data usage. Mobile Data […]
Close on the heels of Airtel tying up with Kotak Mahindra Bank, Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd has announced that government-controlled State Bank of India will be its partner in its payment bank venture. The day also saw Future Group, which runs Big Bazaar, and Idea Cellular, announcing that they too have applied for payments […]
