Mukesh Ambani: Reliance Jio To “Shortly Launch” E-Commerce Venture With 3 Cr Sellers

Even as Amazon and Flipkart find their business models crippled by new changes in the law, India’s richest man Mukesh Ambani announced that his upcoming e-commerce venture will partner with 3 cr sellers, making it the biggest such platform in the country by number of sellers. “Jio and Reliance Retail will shortly launch a unique […]

4G PRICES: Vodafone takes off gloves in fight with Reliance Jio

With a long and painful process of merger with Idea Cellular over, Vodafone India has started has begun slashing its 4G prices and has dislodged new entrant Reliance Jio as India’s cheapest 4G provider. Vodafone Idea, which has been bleeding millions of customers every month in the face of relentless competition, has slashed the price […]

Vodafone Idea promoters to invest Rs 18,250 cr via rights issue

Vodafone will invest Rs 11,000 cr into its Indian subsidiary Vodafone Idea, while its co-promoter Aditya Birla Group will chip in Rs 7,250 cr, the company said today. In total, Vodafone Idea plans to raise Rs 25,000 cr from all its shareholders by selling shares. In case any of the existing shareholders waives their right […]

JIO GIGAFIBER: Reliance reiterates commitment to partner small cable operators

Reliance Jio, which today announced another quarter of strong growth in its 4G wireless services, reiterated its commitment to working with small cable operators as it rolls-out broadband-cum-IPTV network GigaFiber. The company also said that it is in the process of connecting homes to its fiber-to-the-home service, based on the requests received via its website. […]

Can Netflix avoid going Apple’s way in India?

As Netflix inches closer to saturation point in its North American home market, it is desperately looking for growth abroad. India being the only billion plus market where it can operate with ease, it is no wonder that its push is aggressive here. However, as Netflix’s market share stagnates, does it risk meeting the same […]

Airtel becomes first operator to launch 4G in Andaman & Nicobar Islands

Bharti Airtel said it has become the first telecom operator to launch 4G services in Andaman and Nicobar Islands. “Airtel’s 4G services will enable local residents to enjoy digital services like HD quality video streaming, superfast downloads and uploads, high speeds internet browsing on Airtel’s state-of-the-art FDD 4G network,” the company said. Andaman and Nicobar […]

Government gives back surrendered 4G spectrum to BSNL

The government of India has given back the 4G spectrum surrendered by BSNL about seven years ago to enable the state-owned telecom operator to start 4G services. The telecom operator had surrendered 4G spectrum in six expensive circles such as Maharashtra, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh about seven years ago, in return for part […]

NCLT admits insolvency plea against Ortel Communications by Sony Pictures

The National Company Law Tribunal has admitted a petition filed by Sony Pictures Networks India Ltd against cable and broadband operator Ortel Communications. The petition, under Section 9 of the Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code of India, was for initiating insolvency proceedings against the cash-strapped cable and broadband operator. The NCLT also appointed an interim resolution […]

Jio Music no more, gets replaced by JioSaavn

Reliance Jio has pulled its enormously popular Jio Music app and replaced it with JioSaavn, a new app based largely on Saavn, a competitor that the company had acquired in March. Users who have enabled auto-updating of their apps will be upgraded to the new application automatically. With over 100 mln (10 cr) downloads, Jio […]

Hathway to launch Android TV box next month; Play Store support built in

Hathway, one of India’s top cable feed providers, said it will launch its Smart Hub, a smart set-top-box that will run Google’s Android operating system, in the market next month. This will make it the second big player to come on-board the Android TV platform, a special version of Android OS that is customized to […]

Reliance Industries to enlist local stores to fight Flipkart, Amazon

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries group, today said that his company is working on creating a pan-India e-commerce platform that will help small, offline shops compete with players like Amazon and Flipkart. The platform will work by making the inventory of small shops available for purchase online using a sophisticated web and app interface […]

Zee5 added to NetRange Smart TV app store

Zee5, the content app from the Zee Group, has joined the NetRange, an app store found on televisions manufactured by global TV makers such as Philips, Grundig, HiSense, Thomson, Skyworth, Sharp and TCL. With this, the Zee5 app will become instantly available on lakhs of smart TVs across the world. “The ZEE5 app will be […]

Sterlite Tech gets Rs 1,500 cr Bharatnet contract for 8 Maharashtra districts

Two weeks after announcing a Rs 3,500 cr order to build the Indian Navy’s communication network, Sterlite Technologies said it won a Rs 1,512 cr order to connect 4,045 panchayats in Maharashtra under the BharatNet project. The announcement comes close on the heels of GTPL Hathway and Polycab Wires announcing a Rs 1,246 cr order to connect 3,767 […]

Jio GigaFiber to be launched in 1,500 cities – Mukesh Ambani

India’s biggest billionaire and chairman of telecom operator Reliance Jio said today his company is rolling out fiber connectivity in 1,500 cities in India — an apparent uptick from the 1,100 cities announced four months ago. Pointing out that India is ranked at 134th in the global ranking for fixed broadband penetration, Ambani said Jio is determined to […]

Airtel ends ‘lifetime free incoming’; to charge Rs 35/month

Bharti Airtel said it has stopped the policy of allowing users to continue on its network even if they spend nothing on outgoing calls and use their numbers only for receiving incoming calls. The company said it has done this by removing many of its existing prepaid vouchers and plans, and replacing them with ‘minimum […]

Bharti Airtel says open to partnering with cable operators for broadband

Bharti Airtel today said that it was ‘open to’ partnering with cable operators to get access to last mile connections to customers for its broadband service. “We would be open to looking at partnerships to expand our access to the last mile,” said CEO Gopal Vittal. The comment came in the context of Reliance Jio […]

Reliance Jio thunders through estimates, doubles data traffic in 1 yr

Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator, has seen its data traffic double to 2.6 billion GBs per month this September from 1.3 billion GBs a year ago, according to the company’s quarterly update. Surprisingly, the 100% growth in data consumption has outpaced the 83% jump in subscribers. Analysts and observers had expected the company’s data consumption […]