BSNL will offer 10% extra talk time for users recharging with Rs 1,000 or more and waive off processing charges and others levies for those with Rs 200 to 999. The offer will be applicable for 90 days from 25.03.2014 in all circles. BSNL has increasingly found the going tough as private competitors often offer […]
Despite a clarification by the Department of Telecom, several consumer disputes redressal fora in India continue to reject billing and service related disputes against telecom operators. The Department of Telecom had issued a clarification on February 4 this year that private telecom companies cannot be identified with the “Telegraph Authority” of India as defined in […]
Vodafone India has launched its own games and app platform in India, weeks after the mobile operator launched its Music and Sports offerings. While Vodafone had tied up with players Hungama.com for its music services, it has tied up with Disney India for its games and app platform, which can be accessed via its Vodafone […]
Sistema Shyam TeleServices Ltd. (SSTL), which operates its telecom services under the MTS brand in India, said its data card subscriber base for the quarter increased by 11% to 1.34 million subscribers. Non-voice revenues contribute 34.5% of total quarterly revenues, the highest in the industry, the company said. SSTL rolled out its 3GPLUS Telecom Network […]
Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd said it will use the towers of Bharti Infratel for its pan-India LTE rollout, and gave more details of its plans. The company said it will offer connectivity, communication and various digital services on pan India basis in key domains such as education, healthcare, security, financial services, government citizen interfaces and […]
It’s the battle for the mid segment of India’s booming smartphone market, and it looks like Nokia X series may be the first to hit the market by a whisker, beating Samsung’s Tizen operating system. According to sources, Samsung has exhibited its upcoming Tizen based smartphone to developers in India and the first of Samsung […]
A year into its African Safari, India’s largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel has won a license to operate 2G and 3G services in Rwanda. Together with the 16 countries inherited from Zain, Airtel will not be present in 17 countries in Africa. Rwanda, located in in central and eastern Africa, has a population of approximately […]
BSNL’s threat to block calls from private operator networks from reaching its subscribers for their alleged failure to pay dues may lead to a tit-for-tat response from the private operators as well. Reacting to the threat by BSNL to block calls from several leading cellular operators to its network, the Cellular Operators Association of India […]
Reliance Jio Infocomm could overtake Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications in revenue over the next four to five years and corner 11% of the total wireless market, an analyst with a prominent global financial group has predicted. By the 2017-18, Reliance Jio and Reliance Communications would have very similar mobile voice revenue market share, at about […]
Investigating agencies are probing irregularities at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd in the payment of daily wages and in purchase of diesel for mobile towers in three states, the ministry of IT and communications said in a statement. The states where the irregularities have come to notice are Bihar, Karnataka and Punjab, the ministry said. “In Karnataka […]
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has, for the third time, recommended to the government to charge a decent amount of price for the 800 MHz spectrum that it is about to sell to CDMA, or other, operators next month. It suggested a 50% increase in reserve prices for the 800 MHz spectrum compared to […]
A new BBC survey has underlined the importance of mobile phones in content consumption – especially news, and shown that Indians are ahead of others when it comes to using mobile phones for productivity purposes. The study, carried out among 6,000 smartphone owners in Australia, Germany, Sweden, India, Hong Kong and the US, found that […]
The department of telecom’s decision to maintain a key clause about spectrum pricing in mergers and acquisitions will make such deals costly for both parties and has dampened industry enthusiasm considerably. In its announcement of guidelines for mergers and acquisitions for Indian telecom companies, the DoT has said that even if a company got its […]
There seems to be some delays in getting the valuations and finer details right for the Bharti Airtel-Loop agreement, going by the latest statement from Bharti Airtel. The company said it has agreed for a strategic network tie-up with Loop, which it expects later to lead to an integration of the two operations. It also […]
It has been a couple of years since 3G data services were launched in India, and tariffs have largely coalesced around certain points. While we have done similar surveys in the past to find out the cheapest data plan in India among 3G operators, we did yet another to account for the tariff changes over […]
Uninor, the Indian unit of Norway’s Telenor, reported a 67.3% year-on-year jump in operating profits (EBITDA) for the three months ended December 2013. The company also said revenue from its six operating states of Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Goa rose by 35.8% during the three months. They increased 15% in Norwegian […]
Vodafone will pay the highest amount to the government as a result of the 2014 2G spectrum auction, followed by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Idea Cellular. Vodafone will pay Rs 196.4 bln ($3.15 bln), followed by Airtel which will pay about Rs 185.5 bln, Reliance Jio Infocomm, which will pay around Rs 11.1 bln […]
Vodafone said it would pay Rs 19,600 crore (Rs 196 bln) for the spectrum that it won in the just concluded auction process. Vodafone has won bandwidth in 11 circles – Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Karnataka, Kerala, Gujarat, UP East, Rajasthan, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Punjab. It said it will be paying 56 bln rupees in the […]
The operator and circle wise results of the 2014 spectrum auction in India has thrown up quite a few surprises, including the fact that the 900 MHz spectrum price was driven up by Idea Cellular, and not Reliance Jio as expected. (See the results chart below.) The biggest surprise of the spectrum auction results of […]
The Cellular Operators’ Association of India welcomed the end of the spectrum auction, at the end of 11 days of bidding. The COAI said it was also disappointed that the prices were so high, and requested the government to reduce some of the regulatory levies that were put in place during the era of free […]
