Idea Cellular completes sale of 9,900 towers to ATC for Rs 4,000 cr

Idea Cellular said its had completed the sale of its 9,900 towers to American Tower Corp’s India unit at an ‘enterprise valuation’ of Rs 4,000 cr. The exact amount that ATC will pay to the telecom operator for the towers is not clear. Enterprise valuation includes the money payable to creditors as well as shareholders. […]

Reliance Digital, Jio Stores to sell all Motorola devices

India’s largest technology retail chain Reliance Digital said it signed an agreement to sell all Motorola products at its outlets. At present, Motorola is largely an online-focused brand. Motorola, which used to be a big brand in the country in the 1990s and 2000s, lost out to Korean players like Samsung and LG about 10-12 […]

ABS Free Dish shuts down; Will Reliance Big TV benefit?

ABS Free Dish, the free DTH service run by a Bermuda-based company of the same name, has shut down its signals over India. The service used to quite popular in the southern and eastern parts of India as the only other free DTH service — DD Free Dish — was almost entirely focused on the […]

Amazon offers Rs 2,600 cashback on smartphones for Airtel users

Bharti Airtel and Amazon will offer Rs 2,600 cash back over a period of three years for anyone who purchases any of the 65 smartphones exclusively available on Amazon. However, they must make Airtel recharges of Rs 7,000 over a period three years, or about Rs 200 per month. Customers have to buy any of […]

Airtel Digital to continue HD channel additions, says no spectrum constraint

Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal said his company’s DTH service, Airtel Digital, will continue adding new HD channels and was not facing any capacity constraints in this regard. Addressing investor queries after the company’s quarterly results announcement, Vittal said Airtel Digital has around 75 HD channels as of now. “We will be beefing up HD […]

Soaring Jiophone sales could start hurting incumbents – Credit Suisse

Jiophone sales are rising fast and could start affecting the growth rates of rival telecom companies once the churn effect of fleeing Aircel subscribers gets over, analysts from financial services firm Credit Suisse said. Analysts Sunil Tirumala and Viral Shah said trends indicated that the Jiophone is contributing about 7 mln out of the 8-9 […]

Hero MotoCorp launches e-commerce portal for selling genuine parts

Hero MotoCorp has launched online shop for consumers to buy genuine parts and accessories for their Hero scooters and motorbikes. The portal, www.hgpmart.com, will be run by the company directly. However, it will tap close to 100 distributors in a ‘hub and spoke’ model for fulfillment. Consumers can buy any part by following a step-by-step […]

Maruti Suzuki overtakes Mahindra to become India’s No.1 SUV maker

Maruti Suzuki India said it has become the No.1 utility vehicle brand in India, overtaking long-time incumbent Mahindra & Mahindra in the financial year ended March 2018. The company said it had a 27.5% market share in the UV/SUV space in the year. Riding on the success of models like Vitara Brezza, Ertiga and S-Cross, […]

M&M sets up electric ‘hypercar’ unit in Europe under Italian brand

Mahindra & Mahindra, India’s largest SUV maker, said it will launch a high-end electric car brand in Europe, with the first model out in 2020. The company will leverage the design talent of Pininfarina, an Italian design car designer it purchased three years ago. The new brand will be called Automobili Pininfarina. “The company will […]

Bharti Airtel launches Fiber-to-the-Home services at Rs 2,199 per month

With the launch of Reliance Jio’s home broadband services drawing nearer, competitor Bharti Airtel has introduced new fiber-based broadband plans with speeds of up to 300 Mbps. The FTIH (Fiber-To-the-Home) based plan comes at a monthly rental of Rs. 2199 and offers 1200GB of ultra-high speed data along with unlimited STD and local calling benefits. […]

India facing 37% shortfall in DTH spectrum – I&B ministry

India has a total registered demand of 175 satellite transponders for DTH services, but only 111 transponders are currently available, Rajyavardhan Rathore, junior minister for information and broadcasting said, adding that efforst are on to rectify the situation. Satellite transponders refer to the terminals on satellites that emit TV signals that are captured by dish […]

Royal Enfield to set up new production unit near Chennai at Rs 800 cr

Royal Enfield, which makes the iconic ‘Bullet’ retro motorbikes in India, said it will invest Rs 800 cr this financial year to create the second phase of its factory at its Vallam Vadagal site near Chennai. The company, whose products cost upwards of Rs 1.15 lakh, has seen sales of its motorbikes rise rapidly in […]