Telcos

Telcos start trials for CNAP feature in Haryana, Himachal Pradesh

The feature is being introduced to help curb spam, fraud, and scam calls, as well as reduce incidents of impersonation where callers pretend to represent other people or organisations

Gap between telcos network spending and revenue widens beyond ₹10,000 cr

Telecom industry body COAI has defended service providers' call to increase mobile tariff citing continuous widening of gap between their expense on network deployment and revenue earned by them in return. While speaking at India Mobile Congress, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), Director General, SP Kochhar told PTI that the government has supported a lot to telecom operators with policies like right of way (RoW) but still several authorities continue to charge exorbitant fees for laying network elements. "Earlier, the gap until 2024 for infrastructure development and revenue received from tariffs was around Rs 10,000 crore. Now it has started increasing even further. Our cost of rolling out networks should be reduced by a reduction in the price of spectrum, levies etc. "The Centre has come out with a very good ROW policy. It is a different matter that many people have not yet fallen in line and are still charging extremely high," Kochhar said. He defended the cut do

Telcos complete rollout of SMS headers to identify messages, reduce spam

Domestic telecom operators implement SMS header system to categorise messages and enhance transparency, reducing spam and increasing consumer trust, says COAI

My job is to provide multiple players in every telecom vertical: Scindia

The telecom sector is fundamentally one of the most important underpinnings of India's resurgency and growth story, Scindia said

Connectivity is a constitutional duty, not commodity: Scindia to telcos

Telecom service providers must rethink providing connectivity not as a commodity but as a constitutional commitment keeping in mind key factors like affordability, availability, accessibility with blazing data speeds, Union minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Tuesday. While speaking at an event organised by internet service providers body ISPAI and government-backed Nixi, the minister said five days ago India has moved from being the 5th largest economy in the world to become the 4th largest, and he takes pride in representing telecom which is growing at compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14 to 16 per cent as well as with the CAGR of 12-13 per cent in northeast. "You are the engineers of equity. You are the builders of bridges. And you are the keepers of the digital flame of India. Reimagine connectivity not necessarily as a commodity but a constitutional commitment," the minister said. He asked telecom operators and internet service providers (ISP) to follow six foundational .

Revenue-share model 2.0: Levy USO-like fee on OTTs, telcos tell DoT

LTGs take up a significant portion of the network bandwidth, the carriers claimed previously, while asking them to give a share of their revenues towards the infrastructure spend

Freeing up 6GHz band to hurt 5G expansion, telecom operators may tell DoT

Telecom firms plan to oppose DoT's draft rules delicensing lower 6 GHz band, saying it will hamper 5G rollout and cost-effective mid-band spectrum deployment

Telcos cry foul over Trai's 'complement, not compete' satellite stand

These conclusions were part of Trai's recommendation on pricing of spectrum for satellite services to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), released a few days ago

Jio, Airtel, Vi plan roll out of built-in caller ID to curb spam calls

Telecom operators like Jio, Airtel, and Vi have engaged vendors for a caller ID service on all smartphone screens without requiring any third-party app like Truecaller

Lack of 5G monetisation, low RoI for telcos may delay 6G tech: COAI

Telecom operators have given orders for GPUs to better handle traffic on networks

Telecom companies seek easing of 'stringent quality of service' norms

Arguing that Trai did not sufficiently address their concerns over how burdensome and cost-intensive the measures will be, operators said they have approached the DoT

Vodafone Idea planning phased 5G rollout with new tariff plans: CEO Moondra

Vodafone Idea announces plans for phased 5G rollout in 75 cities, offering tariffs reportedly 15% lower than market rates to boost customer acquisition

No major tariff hike, but telecom companies' revenue up 7.2% in Q1

Jefferies says sector will maintain 15% CAGR till FY26

Tech and startup groups push back against licensing regime for OTTs

Write to government ahead of public consultations later this week

Trai mandates telcos to compensate users for outages, raise penal amount

Telecom operators will have to compensate subscribers in case of service outages for more than 24 hours at a district level under the new quality of service rules issued by the sector regulator Trai on Friday. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also increased the penal amount to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 50,000 for failing to meet each quality benchmark under the new rules. The regulator has introduced a graded penalty system of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 2 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for different scales of rule violations under revised regulations --"The Standards of Quality of Service of Access (Wirelines and Wireless) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireless) Service Regulations, 2024". The new norms supersede three different regulations -- Quality of Service (QoS) for basic and cellular mobile services, broadband services, and broadband wireless services. In case of a network outage in a district, telecom operators will need to provide a rebate on rent for postpaid customers and .

BSNL income up at Rs 21,302 cr in FY24; records lowest debt among telcos

State-owned BSNL's total income increased by about 3 per cent to Rs 21,302 crore in the financial year 2023-24, Parliament was informed on Thursday. Minister of State for Communications Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, shared that BSNL's total income was Rs 20,699 crore in 2022-23. The financial data shared by Sekhar shows that BSNL has received Rs 1.16 lakh crore from the revival package approved by the government between financial year (FY) 2020 and FY24. The state-owned firm received Rs 60,203 crore in FY24. The government has approved three revival packages for BSNL and MTNL, comprising Rs 69,000 crore support in 2019, Rs 1.64 lakh crore in 2022 and Rs 89,000 crore in 2023 for allotment of 4G and 5G spectrum. In a separate reply, Sekhar shared a comparative chart of BSNL's debt position as of March 31, 2024, with other telecom operators. According to the chart, BSNL's debt reduced to Rs 23,297 crore in FY24 from Rs 28,092 crore in FY23 and Rs

Tariff hikes to push telcos' Arpu to decadal high of Rs 225 in FY26: CRISIL

The near-simultaneous tariff hikes by all major private operators will push up telcos' average revenue per user (ARPU) to a decadal high of over Rs 225 in FY26, domestic ratings agency Crisil said on Tuesday. Credit profiles of telcos will also improve on the higher profitability and the lower capital expenditure, the agency said. The ARPU -- one of the most keenly tracked metric influencing the financial health of an entity -- will increase 25 per cent in FY26 when compared to FY24, it said. "The industry ARPU should dial up to a decadal high of Rs 225-230 by end of next fiscal compared with Rs 182 last fiscal," its deputy chief ratings officer Manish Gupta said. It can be noted that after the formation of the new government following the general elections, the top three private sector telcos hiked their tariff rates by up to 20 per cent. Gupta said the increased data usage following the introduction of the 5G services will also help the ARPUs. He said customers have also been .

Telecom minister to meet telcos and internet service providers on Tuesday

Jyotiraditya Scindia met with satcom, OEM and electronic makers on Monday

Tariff hikes signal better profitability for telcos going forward: ICRA

The latest telecom tariff hikes announced by telcos can yield additional operating profits of around Rs 20,000 crore for the industry once they are fully absorbed, ICRA said on Friday. With an improved financial metrics, the industry will have the headroom to undertake deleveraging as well as fund capex for the technology upgrade, and network expansion, Ankit Jain, Vice President and Sector Head of Corporate Ratings, ICRA said. The domestic rating agency's view comes after Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel announced they would roll out tariff hikes - in the range of 10-27 per cent - marking the first major telecom tariff increase in the industry in a span of two-and-a-half years. "The latest round of tariff hikes wherein the telcos increased the prepaid tariffs by around 15-20 per cent will provide the traction in the (Average Revenue Per User) ARPU levels and can result in additional operating profits of around Rs 20,000 crore for the industry once these hikes are fully absorbed," ICR

Spectrum auction ends on Day 2 with total Rs 11,340 cr bids, officials say

Volume limited as large part of spectrum already auctioned, says Scindia