Jio Fiber finally unveils its ‘real tariff’, starts at 399 pm

When Mukesh Ambani announced the tariff plans of Reliance Jio Fiber a year ago, most of the people who were eagerly waiting for the commercial services to launch were disappointed as there was nothing special about the company’s tariff card. However, its rivals were relieved, because their fears about a mega disruption in the market […]

Reliance speeds up Jio Fiber connection deployments

Reliance Jio, which started wired broadband operations in September last year, has started speeding up the roll-out of its Jio Fiber service after an initial slow-down. The company started the service with around 8 lakh connections as of October end, most of which were converts from its trial service. Over the next two months, it […]

Coming Soon: Airtel Broadband via cable operators

Bharti Airtel, which announced a program to partner with cable operators after Reliance Jio acquired Den and Hathway, said it has cracked the best model for the partnership and is planning to rapidly expand the program in the next 6-12 months. Airtel announced its cable operator collaborative program in late 2018, and has been trying […]

COVID 19 trips Bharti Airtel’s user growth, pricing pressure seen

Despite the extreme disruption caused by the COVID-19, Bharti Airtel reported a decent set of numbers for the Apr-Jun period, though the pandemic clearly slowed down the growth of Airtel’s 4G service and exerted pressure on realizations. PANDEMIC FREEZE While the company has been reporting strong increases in the number of 4G users in recent […]

ACT Fibernet beats Jio, Airtel, Hathway as India’s fastest growing broadband network

Notwithstanding the looming threat from Reliance Jio, private equity-funded ACT Fibernet has emerged as the fastest growing wired broadband player in India in recent months. For the first three months of 2020, the company added nine times as many fiber broadband subscribers as Reliance Jio and nearly twice as many as Bharti Airtel. Reliance Jio, […]

One-third of Airtel users on VoLTE network – Nokia

Global telecom equipment provider Nokia today said its VoLTE service on Bharti Airtel’s Indian mobile network now supports 110 million users, or about 32% of the company’s total subscriber base. With this, said the Finland-based telecom gear maker, Bharti Airtel’s network has become its Nokia’s biggest VoLTE deployment anywhere in the world. It also makes […]

Airtel becomes first DTH player to unbundle OTT from hardware

Bharti Airtel has become the first major DTH or cable company to free up its content app, Airtel XStream, from its hardware. All other major cable and DTH companies in India offer their app only on their own device — typically a stick or a set-top-box — and do not allow the software to be […]

Jio blames rivals for low data price, seeks TRAI help

Reliance Jio, the country’s largest telecom operator by size, said attempts to increase telecom tariffs have failed due to competitive actions by rivals, and asked TRAI to intervene to raise data prices. Traditionally, it is Jio’s rivals such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea which make such allegations. Responding to a TRAI consultation paper on […]

Vodafone Idea says AGR dues 60% less than DoT estimate

Vodafone Idea, one of India’s biggest telecom operators, today said that the dues that it has to pay pursuant to a recent Supreme Court decision works out to Rs 21,533 cr. This is about 60% less than the Rs 53,000 cr that Department of Telecom has calculated. “Following the approval of the Board of Directors […]

Pushed to the brink, Vodafone Idea gives Jio a fight

Vodafone Idea, an operator that is struggling to stay afloat, seems to have finally decided to abandon its long-held strategy of allowing Reliance Jio to undercut it on prices and lure away its customers. For the last four years, Vodafone and Idea always allowed Jio to price its offerings lower, thus helping the Mukesh Ambani […]

Airtel Digital partially implements TRAI Tariff Order

Airtel Digital, one of the top television channel distributors in India, has partially complied with TRAI’s tariff order as amended on January 1 this year. The company has complied with some provisions of the rules, such as reducing the network charge for up to 200 channels, while compliance with other parts of the tariff order […]

Jio reduces validity of long-term plans to 11 months

Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator, has reduced the validity of its long-term recharges from 1 year to 11 months. Other operators continue to offer 1 year validity for their yearly plans. Jio used to offer two yearly plans – one priced at Rs 2,020 and another priced at Rs 1,299. The costlier plan was […]

AGR DUES: Why Vodafone Idea shutdown is unlikely

Vodafone Idea, one of the top telecom operators in India, is likely to deposit Rs 2,500 cr towards the demands raised by the Department of Telecom related to revenue share under India’s telecom license rules, according to industry sources. The company has been served with a total demand of over Rs 53,000 cr. Meanwhile, Bharti […]

Shutdown fears? Vodafone Idea is still expanding

Even as shares of Vodafone Idea tanked 17% over fears that the company may shut down or file for bankruptcy, the latest numbers posted by the company show that it continues to invest in its network. The correction in the stock price followed a renewed warning yesterday that the company may not be able to […]

Jio’s 6 paise charge led to massive shift in customers to Airtel

Reliance Jio’s decision to charge 6 paise per minute for outgoing calls to other networks had a massive impact on consumer behavior, according to indications from Bharti Airtel’s numbers and management commentary. Jio had, on October 9, announced that it was withdrawing all plans that came with free minutes to non-Jio networks, and from then […]

Airtel keen for a second round of price increase

Bharti Airtel, the former No.1 telecom operator in India, said it is keen on having a second round of price increases in the year starting April, but can do it only if the rest of the industry follows suit. Airtel said it needs to get more money from its customers to ensure that its investors […]

TRAI unlikely to recommend floor pricing

Telecom regulator TRAI is unlikely to recommend floor pricing for voice and data services in India due to ideological as well as practical reasons, according to industry officials. The telecom regulator today came out with a consultation paper saying it wants to broad-base the discussion on setting minimum price for data and voice. At present, […]