Reliance Jio opposes ‘bailout’ for Airtel, Vodafone Idea

Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator by volume of traffic carried, has opposed any ‘bailout package’ for Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, claiming that the two companies have enough assets to pay the back taxes and other dues reinstated by the Supreme Court last week. Instead, Reliance Jio said the government should look at implementing […]

No More Free Calls on Jio, Customers To Pay 6p/min for non-Jio calls

Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom operator by revenue, said it has decided to charge 6 paise per minute for calls made to other operators like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea due to TRAI’s decision to possibly continue with the six-paise-per-minute termination charge. TRAI had, two years ago, announced that the ‘termination charge’, paid by one […]

TRAI Data shows how far behind Vodafone Idea is in 4G deployment

Even as Vodafone Idea announce big initiatives to expand their network and increase 4G speeds, new data released by telecom regulator TRAI shows that the telco has been left far, far behind by rivals Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio in 4G expansion over the last one year. While both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea started […]

Vodafone Idea starts Kerala roll out of Turbonet 4G from Kochi

Vodafone Idea, the biggest telecom operator in Kerala, has started rolling out its faster, integrated 4G service in the state, beginning with Kochi. Back in July, the company had put up posters in recharge outlets in the state promising that a faster, more powerful 4G service will be launched in August. However, the company has […]

Reliance Jio will be 70% bigger than Airtel, Vod-Idea in 3 years-India Ratings

Reliance Jio, the start-up telecom operator, will become 70% bigger than current market leaders Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel in India in three years, India Ratings said. By FY22, Reliance Jio will have cornered 43.2% of the Indian telecom revenues, while Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel will have to be content with 25.4% each, the […]

Airtel to shut down 3G pan India, speed up 4G

Bharti Airtel, one of the top three telecom companies in India, said it plans to shut down its 3G network across India over the next six months. “We intend to shut down 3G services by december,” said CEO Gopal Vittal today, speaking to investors. The company has already shut down the 3G network in Kolkata, […]

Vodafone Idea says 4G speed up 50-70%, but perception sticks

Vodafone Idea CEO Balesh Sharma today said the company had managed to increase the speeds of its 4G networks by 50-70% in around half of its circles where it has merged Idea and Vodafone networks together. However, said Sharma, the market is yet to fully appreciate the improvement in speeds because of the experience that […]

Vodafone Idea’s ‘minimum recharge plans’ starts to hurt

When Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel started cutting off the incoming call facility of low-spending customers around 4-5 months ago, the idea was to force these customers to stop using one of the SIM cards for incoming only. The idea was that if customers are forced to recharge their legacy numbers once every month for […]

Brickwork Ratings downgrades Vodafone Idea over subscriber loss

Brickwork Ratings has downgraded the credit rating of India’s largest telecom operator by subscribers, Vodafone Idea, due to the sharp shrinkage seen in the company’s user base in the last six months. The company’s subscriber base has fallen by a whopping 21% between September last year and March this year, going from 42.23 cr (422 […]

With Idea spectrum, Vodafone 4G gets a speed boost in Kerala

Consumers of Vodafone 4G, one of the two 4G networks operated by Vodafone Idea, have seen a multi-fold increase its speed in recent days, thanks to the deployment of fresh spectrum won by Idea Cellular in 2016. In recent days, Vodafone and Idea users in the state have started getting access to ultra-fast 4G on […]

Airtel launches 4G on ‘Band 8’ in Mumbai to boost indoor coverage

Bharti Airtel has deployed LTE on 900 MHz band, which has the ability to pass through walls and other obstacles much better than other 4G bands. With this, customers with handsets that support this frequency will see an improvement in 4G signal levels. This is expected to be very beneficial for voice usage. It should, […]

Vodafone Idea users to get faster 4G this year

Customers of Vodafone and Idea networks will notice an improvement in their 4G experience in coming weeks, especially in areas like Mumbai and Delhi, as the company starts deploying massive amounts of cash to improve the networks in such areas. The network improvement will be done via several methods — by deploying extra spectrum, technological […]

Mobile data prices down 96% under Modi

Prices of mobile data have crashed by 96% under Modi’s tenure, while those of voice services fell by 76%, according to data released by Department of Telecom. On average, 1 GB of mobile data used to cost Rs 254.95 in December 2014, DoT said, while its price has fallen to just Rs 10.91 for the […]

Vodafone Idea promoters to invest Rs 18,250 cr via rights issue

Vodafone will invest Rs 11,000 cr into its Indian subsidiary Vodafone Idea, while its co-promoter Aditya Birla Group will chip in Rs 7,250 cr, the company said today. In total, Vodafone Idea plans to raise Rs 25,000 cr from all its shareholders by selling shares. In case any of the existing shareholders waives their right […]

Crisil downgrades Vodafone Idea debt due to “pricing pressure”

Ratings agency CRISIL has downgraded certain debt securities of Vodafone Idea Ltd by one notch, quoting conditions in the Indian telecom market. It downgraded Rs 6,000 cr worth of non-convertible debentures issued by Vodafone from AA- to A+. The highest rating in the scheme is AAA+, and the current revision represents a lowering of the […]

Vodafone Idea to eliminate 16,000 distributors, shut 2,000 showrooms

Vodafone Idea, the company formed out of the merger of the former No.2 and No.3 telecom operators in India, said it will eliminate around 16,000 distributors, close over 2,000 branded stores in urban areas and slash the number of call centers by more than half. The moves are aimed at reducing operating costs and helping […]

Vodafone Idea to shut down 88,000 sites, save Rs 490 cr per year

Vodafone Idea will shut down nearly 88,000 cell sites (tenancies) as part of the company’s network optimization drive, the company’s chief technical officer Vishant Vora told analysts in Mumbai yesterday. Vodfone Idea had sent out notices to shut down 66,000 towers in the first week of September itself, resulting in savings of Rs 1,800 cr […]