Facebook, the social networking giant, will help Sterlite Technologies Ltd — one of the oldest private sector cable manufacturers in India — to create specialized 5G radio units. Facebook will help Sterlite Technologies create two products — a 5G radio unit designed for dense deployments, and another, dual-tech 4G+5G radio unit. These are more complicated […]
Telecom equipment and services provider HFCL Ltd said it plans to offer 5G equipment and turnkey services, marking a move up from its roots as a telecom contractor. The company, which has in recent years successfully diversified into manufacturing — particularly of fiber optic cables and terminal devices — said its new 5G network services […]
Amazon has expanded its Fire brand of devices and software to the service sector with the launch of its Fire TV Hotspot broadband service in India. The company started offering Fire TV branded broadband connectivity in the Indian city of Mumbai — making it possibly the only one in the world to get Amazon branded […]
Vi Business, the enterprise arm of Vodafone Idea Ltd. (VIL), said it has taken a crucial step towards turning itself into a techco from being a telco for its enterprise customers. It has become only telecom company in India to offer a secure end-to-end IoT solution offering that comprises connectivity, hardware, network, application, analytics, security […]
Responding to question on whether Chinese companies like Huawei can purchase 5G spectrum in the upcoming auction, India’s communications ministry said any company of any country can participate in any spectrum auction in India. “..they [foreign companies] are allowed to participate in the auctions directly and apply for a Unified License subsequently through an Indian […]
BSNL subscribers waiting for faster wireless connectivity may have to wait for a year or more, as the government today clarified that the state-owned telecom operator has not given orders for 4G equipment for its much-delayed network expansion. Nearly 11 years after 3G and 4G spectrum was first handed over to the company, BSNL is […]
Reliance Jio, India’s largest telecom company, reported a new low in net subscriber additions during the Oct-Dec period, managing to add just about 4.4 million net new users during the final three months of the year. This is the lowest net addition for any three-month period since the company started commercial operations four years ago. […]
In a move that can potentially derail Reliance Jio’s plans to launch 5G services in the second half of this year, Government of India has come up with a plan to auction only 4G spectrum in March this year. The move to exclude 5G airwaves from the auction is likely to further delay the growth […]
Vodafone Idea, the country’s third largest mobile operator, has started deploying a revolutionary new approach to creating its cellular network, but has also encountered several challenges in doing so. The company is experimenting with the so-called ‘open radio access network’ or Open RAN technology, which is a break from the traditional one-box technology promoted by […]
The amount of 5G spectrum set apart for 5G wireless services in India is likely to increase by ten times or more, going by comments made by various government officials at a telecom event today. At present, the amount of 5G spectrum that has been set apart for 5G in India is 275 MHz, which […]
Bharti Airtel, the former No.1 telecom provider of India, has doubled the pace of its 4G roll-out by adding nearly 333 new 4G base stations every day during the July-September period. That works to over 10,000 base stations per month, or almost 14 new 4G base stations per hour — including at night. In comparison, […]
Vodafone Idea lost a whopping 63.53 lakh (6.35 million) subscribers in March — one of the highest ever monthly shrinkage of its user base. March 2020 also saw Bharti Airtel lose 12.62 lakh subscribers. During the month, Reliance Jio added 46.88 lakh users, which is comparatively lower than the numbers that the company had been […]
Reliance Jio, which earlier this month removed its sole data-only plan, has reintroduced such pure data offerings. The telco had, at the beginning of this month, removed its ‘Cricket Data Pack’, its only pure data offering that yielded 2GB of data per day at a cost of around Rs 5 per day. With the removal […]
Data costs on Reliance Jio network have gone up again as the operator has withdrawn its only data-only data and has made it mandatory for all consumers to also activate a voice pack to consume data services. The only data-only plan it had on offer — Jio Cricket Pack — used to give 2 GB […]
Several video-on-demand services in India, including Youtube, Hotstar, Tiktok, Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Zee5, have decided to suspend the streaming of high-definition content as long as the Coronavirus lockdown is in place. They will continue to offer HD content on wired broadband, such as fiber and copper networks. The move is to prevent the […]
Bharti Airtel, the former No.1 telecom operator in India, said it is keen on having a second round of price increases in the year starting April, but can do it only if the rest of the industry follows suit. Airtel said it needs to get more money from its customers to ensure that its investors […]
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, which is in the middle of a massive turnaround program, has officially asked the government for the allotment of 5G spectrum, according to Sanjay Dhotre, junior minister for communications, Government of India. “Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has requested DoT to assign spectrum for 5G services on Pan India basis (except […]
Users of Reliance Jio’s 4G service have started cutting down on their data and voice usage the company implemented price increases in December, thus limiting the benefits of the price hike from fully flowing through to the company. The average data consumed by a Reliance Jio user fell to 11.1 GB per month during October-December […]
Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have started enabling WiFi calling — routing the call via the user’s WiFi network even if cellular network is available — across the country on selected handset models. Models for which WiFi calling is being enabled include those from Apple, OnePlus and Samsung. Other models are likely to be supported […]
Telecom regulator TRAI is unlikely to recommend floor pricing for voice and data services in India due to ideological as well as practical reasons, according to industry officials. The telecom regulator today came out with a consultation paper saying it wants to broad-base the discussion on setting minimum price for data and voice. At present, […]
