Bharti Airtel will exit from music vertical and shut down its Wynk Music app, according to sources. The company will absorb all Wynk Music employees. "Airtel is planning to close Wynk Music in the next couple of months. It will absorb all the employees into the company," a source told PTI. When contacted, an Airtel spokesperson confirmed the development. "We can confirm that we will sunset Wynk Music and all Wynk music employees will be absorbed within the Airtel ecosystem. Airtel users will have access to Apple Music. Additionally, Wynk Premium users will receive exclusive offers from Airtel for Apple," the spokesperson said. The company has entered into an agreement with Apple to provide access to Apple Music with special offers to its customers who use iPhone.
The Goods and Service Tax Appellate Authority has ordered Bharti Airtel to pay Rs 194 crore GST on licence fees and spectrum usage charges demanded by the Department of Telecom, a regulatory filing said on Thursday. The matter pertains to the demand for Goods and Service Tax (GST) of Rs 604.66 crore by the GST Department under the reverse charge mechanism on license fee (LF) and spectrum usage charges (SUC) basis the demand note issued by the Department of Telecommunications. The company had filed an appeal against the order. "On an appeal filed by the Company to Commissioner (Appeals), Central Goods and Service Tax Appellate Authority, Delhi, the Appellate Authority has passed an appeal order reducing the said demand to Rs 194 crore," the company said. The order was received by the company on August 21, and it is assessing the impact of the appeal order and shall take appropriate action.
Telecom operators, in their latest submission to sector regulator Trai, have unanimously demanded to bring over-the-top apps like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram within the ambit of the licensing regime under the new Telecommunication Act. Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and industry body COAI -- in their comments on the consultation paper issued by Trai, seeking views on the framework for service authorisations to be granted under the Telecommunications Act, 2023 -- have said that the calling and messaging apps should be brought under services to be provided through authorisation. "As per our understanding, OTT Communication services are covered under the new Telecom Act as an access service," Telecom operators industry body COAI said in its submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Reliance Jio said the definition of 'message' and 'telecommunication service' under the newly enacted Telecommunication Act, 2023, includes all forms of telecommunication
Says waiting for signal from DoT to start Oneweb in India
Amid demands for consistent and reliable telecom service, there might be an excellent opportunity for those who wish to invest in new 5G infrastructure
Vittal said early signs of industry wide tariff hikes are encouraging, Rs 300 ARPU needed
At 6:31 AM, GIFT Nifty futures were up 197 points, trading at 24,299.5, indicating a robust gap-up opening.
Continued growth in WiFi category helped Q1 gains; Arpu rises to Rs 211
Continuing devaluation of African currencies and higher finance costs remain drags
Bharti Airtel's Africa unit Airtel Africa has reported a consolidated net profit of USD 7 million for the June 2024 quarter against a USD 170 million loss in the year-ago period. Its net profit was primarily impacted by the USD 80 million of exceptional derivative and foreign exchange losses (net of tax) and lower EBITDA due to significant currency devaluation across key markets, Airtel Africa said. It had reported a loss of USD 91 million for the fourth quarter ended March 2024 on account of tax impact and forex loss. "Strong fundamentals and focussed execution continue to support operating performance despite challenging macro-economic environment," the company, which operates in 14 African countries, said. The company's consolidated revenue fell 16 per cent in Q1 FY25 to USD 1,156 million from USD 1,377 million a year ago. The decline in revenue reflects the impact of currency devaluation, particularly in Nigeria, the company said. "We have initiated a comprehensive cost ...
Bharti Airtel announced that it has increased its Wi-Fi service to an additional 1.9 million new households in Telangana
Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia has achieved a top download speed of 1.2 gigabit per second for 5G services several times during trials it concluded recently, the company said on Monday. The download speed was achieved during the first 5G non-standalone (NSA) Cloud radio access network (RAN) trial with Bharti Airtel (Airtel) in India. "The trial took place in an over-the-air environment utilising 3.5 GHz spectrum for 5G and 2100 MHz for 4G. Data calls were successfully performed with commercial user devices over Airtel's commercial network achieving a throughput of over 1.2 Gbps," Nokia said in a statement. Nokia spokesperson said the top speed of over 1.2 Gbps was achieved several times during the trial in the mid-frequency band of 3.5 Ghz. "This successful trial with our long-term partner, Bharti Airtel supports their ambitions for building scalable, agile and highly automated networks. Nokia's approach to Cloud RAN means that our customers can flexibly evolve to Cloud RAN with
The Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) on Thursday signed a multi-year contract with telecom major Bharti Airtel, under which the latter will provide network and connectivity solutions for CBDT's Taxnet-2.0 programme. This contract is an extension as Airtel has been the network partner to CBDT since 2008 in Taxnet-1.0. "The formal Letter of Award was handed over to Bharti Airtel by the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) and the Letter of Acceptance has been given by Bharti Airtel to CBDT. The occasion was graced by Mr. Sunil Bharti Mittal, Founder and Chairman, Bharti Enterprises, and Mr Ravi Agarwal, Chairman, CBDT," Airtel said in a statement. Airtel will provide robust dual connectivity with Software Defined Network for WAN, and Secure LAN amongst other technology solutions for CBDT's Taxnet-2.0 programme, which aims to modernise the current system for collection, processing, monitoring and accounting of direct taxes, it said.
Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel cumulatively raised their wireless subscriber tally by 34.4 lakh users in May, while Vodafone Idea continued to witness a fall in its user base, data released by TRAI showed on Tuesday. India's largest telecom operator Reliance Jio gained 21.9 lakh wireless users, and Bharti Airtel added 12.5 lakh mobile customers in May, even as Vodafone Idea lost 9.24 lakh wireless users during the month. The gains pushed Reliance Jio's mobile subscriber tally to 47.46 crore in May from 47.24 crore in April, according to the latest telecom subscription data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). Vodafone Idea continued to register a decline in mobile subscribers as its wireless subscriber count fell by 9.24 lakh to 21.81 crore users in May. "In the month of May 2024, 12 million subscribers submitted their requests for Mobile Number Portability (MNP). With this, the cumulative MNP requests increased from 973.60 million at the end of April-24 to 985.60 .
Aims to empower 4000 students with an outlay of Rs 100 crore annually
The telecom ministry will work on actionable plan with defined timelines on issues that have been discussed with telecom operators and other players in the sector, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday. The minister held meetings with three of the six committees set by his ministry. The meeting with the committee on telecom operators was attended by telecom chiefs including Reliance Jio Chairman Akash Ambani, Bharti Airtel Founder and Chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, and Vodafone Idea MD and CEO Akshaya Moondra. "We've identified a rather deep agenda for these committees. Now the members of these committees and us will be working together," Scindia said. Industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Director General S P Kochhar was also part of the meeting. Scindia said there are varied schedule for the first presentation of these committees that will be over the next couple of weeks. "Then we will be taking on each individual issue, delving into the det
The Supreme Court on Monday took note of a telecom firm's submission that its plea seeking correction of alleged errors in Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) related dues be listed for consideration. A bench comprising Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra was urged by senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Vodafone Idea, that the petition needed consideration. The curative petition against the dismissal of earlier pleas seeking correction of alleged errors in AGR-related dues is yet to be listed before a bench, the telecom firm said. "I will see," the CJI said and asked whether an email has been sent in this regard. On October 9 last year, the top court had taken note of submissions of some telecommunication companies seeking listing of their pleas on AGR due issue. The telcos had referred to alleged errors in the arithmetic calculation for arriving at the AGR-related dues by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). In July 2021,
COAI has restated calls to stop USOF payments, reduce customs duty on equipment
Subscriber churn is expected, though companies have varied the hikes to minimise the impact at the lower end. Reliance Jio is expected to widen its lead over others in terms of total subscribers
A hacker had posted on X that data of nearly 375 million Airtel customers, including phone numbers, email addresses, and Aadhaar numbers, were supposedly for sale on the dark web