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Kotak Institutional Equities has withdrawn its rating on Bharti Airtel, expressing concern about what exactly new entrant Reliance Jio is trying to achieve in the market with its relentless price cuts.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 […]
Idea Cellular and Vodafone India will gear their network heavily towards 4G after merger and will also shut down over 60,000 cell sites as part of network optimization, going by the presentation being made by Idea in front of investors. The companies had earlier announced that they would surrender around 6,300 cell sites that are […]
Idea Cellular CEO Himanshu Kapania sounded a note of caution and urged Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio to stop trying to beat each other by cutting prices. “We don’t want to participate in the present level of price drops,” Kapania said, in the context of the company’s quarterly results. “We are hoping that the volatility […]
Idea Cellular reported a 12.8% sequential decline in gross revenue in the third quarter, while average revenue per user or ARPU fell by 13.6% to 114 rupees. However, the decline was less than that reported by bigger peer Airtel. Against the 13.6% fall in ARPU reported by Idea, Airtel’s ARPU had declined by 15% during […]
Reliance Jio has slashed its prices again, offering unlimited calls at a starting price of Rs 98 per month and increasing data allocation on its existing plans. The move comes after Bharti Airtel started offering up to 90 GB at a price of Rs 193. The price of the entry-level pack has been cut from […]
In a sign that it is willing to go all the way in taking on Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel has slashed its 4G price to an all-time low of Rs 2.14 per GB. With its new tariff line-up, Bharti Airtel is now the cheapest operator by some distance for those who require 2.0 to 2.5 […]
The proposed merger between Idea Cellular and Vodafone got the approval of India’s National Company Law Tribunal, with the rider that the merged entity will be liable to pay income tax on behalf of Vodafone India in case of a ruling that Vodafone India has to pay the arrears. “Considering the entire facts and circumstances […]
After disrupting the market with its 1GB per day plans, Reliance Jio has unveiled new packs targeted at heavy users. Two new plans have been unveiled today that were not present on the company’s website earlier — a 3GB per day plan priced at Rs 509 and a 5GB daily plan that costs Rs 799. […]
Reliance Jio has unveiled eight new plans that have brought down the price of 4G data by 32% to Rs 3.56 per GB from Rs 5.19 per GB earlier. The new plans are available from Tuesday and will make most of the the company’s existing plans irrelevant (see table below). The new plans start from […]
Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Reliance Industries, has achieved what was considered impossible barely 18 months ago: India now has more 4G base stations than 2G base stations. In other words, 4G service providers in India have put up more towers in the last three years than 2G installations in the last 32 years. […]
Idea Cellular said its board of directors have approved the issuance of 32.66 cr shares of the company to its promoter Aditya Birla Group at a price of Rs 99.50 each. The total infusion will be to the extent of Rs 3,250 cr. It also said it plans to raise Rs 3,500 cr from third […]
When Mukesh Ambani launched his telecom venture a year ago, it was based on one key assumption: India is a data starved country, and given the right pricing, demand for the commodity is almost insatiable. Going by the latest industry data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, he may be right on the money. […]
The problem of high debt levels faced by some telecom companies in India was of their own making and the government had a limited to role to play in resolving the same, the inter-ministerial group set up to address the concerns of telecom sector found. The cash flow issues faced by the companies is related […]
With Reliance Jio unveiling its first monthly tariff plans, all eyes are now on the incumbents — Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone — to see how they will respond. Industry sources believe that the three operators will unveil a new 199 plan which gives 1 GB of data per day for 28 days to […]
As expected, Reliance Jio has launched its first monthly plans — Rs 199 for 1.2 GB per day and Rs 299 for 2 GB per day. The plans were anticipated after the newcomer unveiled its permanent plans on Diwali — more than a month ago. The plans price data at roughly the same levels as […]
Hit by a loss of subscribers, Idea Cellular seems to be having second thoughts about its strategy of always pricing its packs above those of Reliance Jio. The mobile operator has now slashed the price of its 70-day unlimited pack to Rs 398 from Rs 448 earlier for many of its 4G customers. This makes […]
The lenders of Reliance Communications have got initial bids for the company’s assets from the three big telecom companies in India, CNBC TV18 reported, quoting banking sources. The Anil Ambani Group company is under the control of its lenders after it ran aground due to high debt load and the emergence of 4G services. Three […]
Bharti Airtel has unveiled two new publicly available 4G plans with 2 GB and 3 GB of data allocation per day, along with free voice and SMS benefits. These plans are unique as currently no other operator offers 2GB or 3G per day at these price levels. Airtel has priced its 3 GB per day […]
Reliance Jio, India’s newest operator, added 5.94 mln subscribers in September, breaking a declining trend in net additions and taking the total subscriber number to 138.62 mln (13.86 cr). Even as the company increased its subscriber numbers, it was also able to reduce the proportion of inactive or switched-off users on the network. SEPTEMBER BLUES […]
