Kotak Institutional Equities has withdrawn its rating on Bharti Airtel, expressing concern about what exactly new entrant Reliance Jio is trying to achieve in the market with its relentless price cuts.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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal said he believes the worst is over as far as the company’s revenue decline is concerned. During the last three months of 2017, Airtel saw the highest ever decline in both its India mobile revenue as well as per-user revenue as it struggled to compete with new entrant Reliance Jio. […]
Bharti Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal today said that the current levels of pricing in the Indian telecom market was ‘clearly unsustainable’ and will have to be raised. “These levels of pricing are clearly unsustainable, therefore pricing will have to be lifted,” he said, discussing Airtel’s third quarter results. “But there’s a fight for market share […]
The Telecom Regulator’s subscriber addition numbers for November showed that new operator Reliance Jio continued to lead the charts in terms of net subscriber addition, but rivals like Idea Cellular and Vodafone too have come back on the growth path. Part of the reason for the reversal in the fortunes of Idea and Vodafone could […]
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, the firm led by Mukesh Ambani, will walk away with most of the telecom assets of Reliance Communications, led by Mukesh’s brother Anil. Rcom said it has “signed definitive binding agreements with Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited for sale of Wireless Spectrum, Tower, Fiber and Media Convergence Node (MCN) assets.” The Anil Ambani company […]
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 […]
Telecom minister Manoj Sinha today said the government is committed to the “the fundamental principles and concept of net neutrality” and is studying the recommendations of the telecom regulator in this regard. The government is keen to ensure “non-discriminatory access to internet,” Sinha added. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India had, a month ago, sent […]
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which had been seeing a steady recovery in its financial condition in the last three years, found it difficult to keep the recovery going in FY17. According to the latest data given by the Department of Telecom, the company reported a net loss of Rs 4,786 cr for the year […]
Anil Ambani, who warned about the possibility of the emergence of a ‘monopoly’ in Indian telecom three months ago, today said he was hanging up on his consumer telecom business. Ambani, younger brother to Mukesh Ambani — the chairman of Reliance Industries — said the mobile telephony business had changed into a new beast, and […]
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd is currently testing an intra-circle roaming agreement with Reliance Jio in Karnataka circle, telecom minister Manoj Sinha said. However, he did not clarify whether the agreement was to allow BSNL users to tap into Reliance Jio’s 4G service or to allow Jio users to access BSNL’s 2G service. However, the […]
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, the government-controlled telecom company, is likely to start its 4G services with a modest 10,000 towers. In comparison, players like Idea Cellular, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel have between 50,000-100,000 4G towers, while Reliance Jio has around 200,000 LTE base stations. BSNL has planned for only 10,000 4G node B or base […]
Vodafone India announced a cash back deal on itel’s A20 4G smartphone. Under the scheme, anyone who buys the mobile phone for Rs 3,690 will get a cashback of Rs 900 after 1.5 years and Rs 1,200 after another 1.5 years. However, the person has to use the specified Vodafone number on the device and […]
After regulating Internet and broadband services for years, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India seems to have decided to enter the broadband era by using technology to stream its ‘open house’ discussions to the public. The regulator is streaming its latest open house discussion on spam calls and SMSes to the public via its twitter […]
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 […]
India’s telecom regulator TRAI has issued its recommendations on Net Neutrality in India. The recommendations are largely along expected lines, and prevent telecom companies from slowing down the Internet to ease the traffic of their video apps, messengers and other ‘over-the-top’ services. The move comes even as an Indian-origin bureaucrat in the US is facing […]
ONGC and satellite operators in India have raised objections to the upcoming 5G spectrum auctions. An umbrella body of several satellite infrastructure organizations suggested that existing facilities that fall in the bands scheduled for the ‘5G auction’ should be allowed to operate. Telecom services have encroached on higher and higher frequencies of radio spectrum with […]
