Newly launched telecom operator Reliance Jio has overtaken market leader Bharti Airtel as the company with the largest telecom network in India. As of March 1, Reliance Jio had 4.48 lakh telecom base stations (towers) in India, compared to 4.31 lakh base stations for Bharti Airtel. At the same time, Idea Cellular had 2.79 lakh […]
4G operator Bharti Airtel was clearly ahead of market leader Reliance Jio and challenger Idea Cellular in on-the-ground 4G speed tests conducted by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India in ten cities in India this year. According to the data from these tests, Bharti Airtel scored an average download speed of 9.46 Mbps, 44% faster […]
Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecom services provider, today unveiled its installment schemes for the new Samsung Galaxy S9 and S9 Plus that can save you anywhere from Rs 8,000 to Rs 11,000 over a two-year period. The plans are similar to what it has rolled out for the Apple iPhone, and offer value for those […]
Taking the fight up a notch, Star India, the biggest television broadcaster in the country, has threatened to disconnect all its 56 channels currently aired by Airtel Digital, India’s second-biggest DTH network. “Dear Airtel Digital customer, your favorite channel.. along with all 56 channels in Star India bouquet is likely to be disconnected on Airtel […]
Even as Airtel Digital and Star India are trying to scuttle a new TRAI law aimed at unraveling TV channel bundles, the DTH operator has removed all Star channels from its various bundles and packages due to a disagreement over pricing. UPDATE: Star is now threatening to stop providing the signals altogether. https://ultra.news/s-e/38740/star-india-threatens-airtel-digital-with-complete-disconnection-of-channels As of […]
The Telecom Commission, the top bureaucratic decision making body within the communications ministry, has approved a Rs 7,330 cr project to set up an additional 4,072 mobile towers in left-wing extremism affected areas, telecom minister Manoj Sinha said today. The project will be a follow-up the first phase, when BSNL set up 2,329 towers in […]
Bharti Airtel said it will launch affordable 4G smartphones powered by Google’s Android Go platform next month, under a tie-up with handset makers Micromax and Lava. “Entry level 4G smartphones under Airtel’s ‘Mera Pehla Smartphone’ program will be shipped with Android Oreo (Go edition) as standard OS starting March 2018,” the telecom operator said. “Lava […]
Indian operator Bharti Airtel, aircraft maker Airbus, US airline Delta and US operator Sprint were among the founding members of a new platform intended to pave the way for easier in-flight telecom connectivity. The alliance, which also includes satellite broadband operator OneWeb and in-flight connectivity specialist GoGo, plans to bring more companies onboard. The aim […]
The pain for Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular may be far from over as Reliance Jio is seen preparing a massive rollout of its low-cost smartphone that could deal yet another heavy blow to the incumbent telecom operators’ revenue. Speaking at the Uttar Pradesh Investors’ Forum in Lucknow today, Reliance Jio Chairman Mukesh […]
After advising restraint in the fight with new operator Reliance Jio, it seems to be the turn of Idea Cellular and its partner Vodafone to slash prices. Both operators have cut the price of the cheapest unlimited voice and data pack to the Rs 150 range from Rs 200 range, bringing them into direct competition […]
Bharti Airtel said it has tied up with HMD, the maker of Nokia smartphones, to offer cash back of Rs 2,000 on the Nokia 2 and 3 smartphones. The initial price of Nokia 3 will be Rs 9,499 and that of Nokia 2 will be Rs 6,999. To get the cash back of Rs 2,000, […]
Star India’s digital business, Hotstar, will make content available via Bharti Airtel’s TV app. The companies did not clarify if all content on Hotstar will be available or not. Given that it costs Rs 199 per month to access all content on Hotstar, that is unlikely. This is the second tie-up that Hotstar, part of […]
Smaller operators Idea Cellular and Telenor handily beat bigger rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel in a 4G network quality field test conducted by the telecom regulator in the Gujarati city of Surat. In fact, the survey agency was not able to get a Youtube video playing over Jio’s network in all five locations where […]
UK’s Vodafone is looking to combine its stake in Indus Towers, India’s largest tower company, with Bharti Infratel, the tower arm of market leader Bharti Airtel, on the basis of $5 bln valuation for its asset, the Economic Times reported, quoting unnamed sources. The move would seem to indicate an upcoming merger of Indus Towers and […]
International credit rating agency Fitch said it revised its outlook on the Indian telecom sector to ‘stable’ from ‘negative’ and sees the sector returning to revenue growth in 2018. “We expect gradual price discipline in India’s telecoms sector to drive a mid-single-digit revenue recovery in 2018, following 2017’s falls,” the firm said in the context […]
Tata Teleservices Maharashtra, the listed arm of Tata Teleservices that provides telecom services in Maharashtra and Goa, reported better pretax profit margins for the December quarter thanks to lower depreciation charges. Pretax losses narrowed to Rs 385 cr in Q3 from Rs 392 cr in the Q2 and Rs 489 in the year-ago period. Depreciation […]
Telecom companies in India have been caught by surprise by the increase in voice calls made by their subscribers in recent months, telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan said on Tuesday after attending a meeting with industry officials. “They have been surprised by the two-times growth of voice traffic (since unlimited plans were introduced),” Sundararajan said after […]
Kotak Institutional Equities has withdrawn its rating on Bharti Airtel, expressing concern about what exactly new entrant Reliance Jio is trying to achieve in the market with its relentless price cuts. “What does Jio want,” asked analyst Rohit Chordia in his note withdrawing his rating on Bharti Airtel. “Even as the company’s actions thus far […]
An analysis of search data from Google has reveals that Bharti Airtel’s 4G service has overtaken Reliance Jio in terms of creating online buzz, as reflected by the number of searches on Google. Bharti’s LTE service, called Airtel 4G, had been totally eclipsed by the launch of Jio in 2016 and was nowhere in the […]
Reliance Jio, which generates about 70% of India’s mobile Internet traffic, is likely to introduce four data top-up packs today, according to a company source. The company will introduce recharges in four denominations — Rs 11, 21, 51 and 101, which prices data at between Rs 16.83 per GB and Rs 28.16 per GB. The […]
