If you thought the fight over net neutrality was over with the sending of 1 mln emails to the TRAI two years ago, think again. The telecom service providers, who lost out that in the first round, are back. This time, however, their demands are more subtle, and focused on getting specific services exempted from […]
Free services from Reliance Jio, the telecom services arm of Reliance Industries, brought down the amount of money paid by telecom subscribers in India by about Rs 4,400 cr in just the last three months of 2016, an analysis of the sector data revealed. The numbers indicate that the company’s free offers have helped Indians save a […]
Reliance Jio, the telecom services provider from Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries, has extended the period for its subscribers to sign up for its Membership program up to Apr 15. It will also provide three months of free service for any member who signs up for its monthly packages starting at Rs 303 per month. In […]
The Telecom Comission, a panel set up within the Department of Telecom with external representatives, has suggested that the ministry of communications should send back for ‘reconsideration’ the recommendation by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for it to impose a fine of Rs 3,050 cr on Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone India. The […]
Reliance Jio, India’s newest telecom operator is set to add almost 50 mln users to its Prime platform, according to reliable sources. As of now, the company has added close to 43.5 mln, with another 3-4 mln additions expected in the remaining 2.5 days. On average, the company added 1.55 mln Prime customers per day over […]
Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecommunications services provider, said it sold 10.3% of its tower unit Bharti Infratel to funds advised by US private equity firm KKR and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board at Rs 325 per share. The transaction has been done at a premium of around 3% to the stock’s opening price of Rs […]
The Department of Telecom is considering the remove of local address requirements for people taking a new mobile connection using an Aadhaar card. “We are in final talks. It will take a few more days,” said a DoT official. At present, taking a mobile phone connection requires that the subscriber should either have proof of […]
Some may call it a storm in a tea cup, but the Ookla-Jio-Airtel controversy has turned out to be a one with an unexpectedly long life. After coming up with a half-hearted defence two days ago, Ookla — the provider of the world’s most popular mobile and broadband speed testing service — today gave a […]
High right-of-way charges levied by local bodies for allowing Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to lay underground cables are largely responsible for the telecom company’s inability to provide land phones on demand, the government said. As of January, BSNL has 12,052 landline applications kept pending and most of this is because of poor commercial feasibility issues […]
Bharti Airtel has abolished roaming charges for its subscribers within India, after new rival Reliance Jio adopted a similar policy. The move will come into effect on April 1, the date on which Jio will start its services on a commercial basis. With this, incoming calls will be free and outgoing calls and SMS will […]
Investors are only now starting to realize the plan that Mukesh Ambani and his telecom brainchild, Reliance Jio, have put into practice, and are therefore driving stock prices of his company higher, said Angel Broking, a retail-only stock-broker. Reliance Industries share prices surged 11% on Wednesday, the first time it has moved so much in […]
In a surprise announcement, Bharti Airtel said it was taking over Telenor India, marking the first such transaction since Idea took over Spice Telecom several years ago. Typically, companies in Indian telecom sector sell only assets, such as spectrum, and never the whole unit, due to the high debts on telecom companies’ balance sheets in […]
Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio Infocomm, will make a statement today, 21 February, at 1:30 PM. The statement will be streamed via Youtube and other channels. The link to the live stream will be shared by around 12 PM. Though the company has no revealed what the subject of the announcement will be, it is […]
Reliance Jio, the new 4G operator, has the highest number of subscribers in Andhra Pradesh, followed by Gujarat and Delhi. The company added 20 mln (2 cr) new users in December, its highest ever tally for a single month. The previous record was held by October, when it added 19.63 mln users. In December, the […]
It’s common knowledge that Reliance Jio’s free data service has massively increased Internet usage in India, but a new report throws light on what categories have been benefited and which have not. The biggest beneficiary of the free data offer from Reliance Jio is — yes, you guessed it right — social media, which technically […]
The market is abuzz with rumors of the impending launch of a 1000-rupee ‘feature phone’ by Reliance Jio, but comments by Airtel CEO Gopal Vittal suggests that the Mukesh Ambani firm will not be able to launch such a phone without providing a big subsidies. However, doing so would in turn require locking the device […]
Reliance Jio will not be extending its Happy New Year free data offer beyond March 31, according to our sources in the company. The clarification comes in the wake dozens of reports claiming that it will extend the free scheme beyond the March 31 deadline into June. “There is zero chance of that happening,” said a […]
Idea Cellular today increased the free data allocation on its existing unlimited calling packs. Compared to 1 GB of 4G data that customers were getting with the Rs 348 pack, they will now get 4 GB. Similarly, the free data allocation for those who do not have 4G handsets has been increased from 50 MB […]
India’s telecom regulator has suggested that every rural citizen should be given 100 MB or so per month on a free basis to help the spread of digital revolution in the country. It has also suggested allowing ‘third party aggregators’ like Facebook to offer free data, but only if they can keep telecom companies totally […]
Fitch Ratings has downgraded India-based Reliance Communications Limited’s long-term rating to ‘B+’ from ‘BB-‘. “It is our view that Rcom’s plans to demerge its wireless business into a 50:50 joint-venture and sell 51% of its tower business, Reliance Infratel Ltd (Infratel), will be negative for Rcom’s creditors, even if receipts from the tower transaction are […]
