Page 3 - Telecom Companies

Need entire 6 GHz band for deploying 5G: Telecom group writes to DoT

Telcos and tech majors have been locked in a fight over the crucial spectrum band

Reliance, Vodafone, Airtel may increase their headcount by 25% in FY24

Reliance Jio's total headcount at FY23 end was 95,326; Airtel's headcount was 64,407; and Vodafone Idea's was 15,604

Bharti Airtel Q1 results: Net profit flat at Rs 1,612 crore, ARPU at Rs 200

Bharti Airtel's India revenue for Q1FY24 at Rs 26,375 crore, increased by 13.1 per cent

Q1 Preview: Airtel ARPU may near Rs 200-mark; Voda to see muted subs churn

Bharti Airtel Q1 preview: On average, analysts expect Bharti Airtel's consolidated net profit to rise around 60 per cent year-on-year (YoY) to Rs 2,676 crore in Q1FY24

Telcos dole out 7-8% salary hikes, up to 110% bonus to retain talent

The market leader, Reliance Jio has not announced the increments and bonuses so far

Telcos revenue from voice calls down 80%, SMS 94%, data revenue up 10 times

Telecom operators' revenue share from voice calls has declined by about 80 per cent and by 94 per cent from SMS in the last 10 years as the usage of internet-based calling and messaging apps grew, according to a Trai paper. However, revenue share per user from data usage grew over 10 times between June 2013 quarter to December 2022 quarter, according to the paper. Telecom regulator Trai in its latest paper to regulate internet messaging and callings app like WhatsApp, Google Meet, Facetime etc said that with growing usage of over-the-top (OTT) applications for messaging, voice communication, has led to a transition from voice and SMS towards data as a primary source of revenue for telecom service providers globally. "In India, composition of the revenue basket of wireless access service providers has undergone a sea-change in the period from the year 2013 to 2022," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in its consultation paper on "Regulatory Mechanism for Over-The-T

Airtel Business announces changes to leadership team; CEO Chitkara quits

Ajay Chitkara, CEO Airtel Business, has decided to move on from Airtel

Cabinet approves Rs 89,047 crore revival plan for state-run telco BSNL

Last year, a revival plan of Rs 1.64 trillion was announced for BSNL, which was to be spent over four years

Bharti Airtel Q4 net profit jumps 49% to Rs 3,005 cr, revenue up 14.3%

Airtel also recommended a final dividend of Rs 4 per share of face value Rs 5 each

Vodafone Idea expected to come up with revival plan within a month: Report

In an interview, telecom secretary K Rajaraman said that the return of Kumar Mangalam Birla, chairman of Aditya Birla group, to the board of the ailing telco is a 'positive step'

Telcom firms being mindful of service quality in 5G rollout, says COAI

Industry body COAI has asserted that operators are mindful of adhering to service quality as they roll out 5G, but added that full benefits of seamless urban-rural connectivity of fifth-generation services will be gained once pan-India availability of these networks is achieved. The speed of 5G rollout in India "is the fastest in the world", SP Kochhar, Director General of Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) said. "When the rollout is taking place in a phased manner, that is, in urban areas first, followed by rural, and not in a heterogeneous manner - the overall benefits of 5G will take some time to arrive," Kochhar told PTI. 5G services, in locations rolled out already, are meeting the scientific parameters of ultra high-speed network. "Wherever 5G is being rolled out, telecom operators are being very careful that they adhere to quality, as it is in their interest to do so, and the competition is so stiff that they don't want to lose out the business. So they will com

COAI bats for industrial electricity tariff rates for telecom infra

Telcos' body COAI has made a strong plea that the telecom sector be charged industrial tariffs for electricity and not commercial rates, and that power connections be expeditiously provided to telecom infrastructure facilities. It said doing so was important given the essential nature of services and socio-economic benefits that accrue across multiple sectors from faster 5G deployments. COAI - whose members include telecom operators like Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea - has also batted for the sector to be provided uninterrupted 24x7 power supply. "Telecom is an infrastructure industry, but we are still being charged at commercial rates for power. So we don't get the benefits," SP Kochhar, Director General of Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) told PTI. COAI has demanded that telecom infrastructure be charged at industrial and not commercial rates for electricity. Today, most states provide electricity on commercial tariff rate to telecom industry, placi

Trai directs telecom companies to report network outages with reasons

The telecom regulator Trai on Tuesday directed telecom operators to start reporting about network outages that affect all consumers in a district. The direction has come into force with immediate effect. "..the access service providers have been directed to report...all incidents of major network outages affecting the telecom services to the entire consumers of a district continuously for a period of more than four hours, within 24 hours of their occurrence," the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in a statement. The development follows after the regulator learnt about major network outages in the country of prolonged duration especially in the border and hilly areas, which adversely affect the quality of services being provided. Trai has directed telecom operators to report the root cause of major network outages and corrective actions taken by the telecom operators within 72 hours of restoration of the service. The regulator said that the information will be colle

Trai asks telcos to take action on pesky telemarketing calls, messages

Trai on Monday asked telcos to take immediate action to curb pesky calls and messages by getting banks and FIs to clean up unused templates, as the regulator initiated a slew of steps to crackdown on the issue of unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) that, at times, leads to instances of frauds and scams. Telecom Regulatory Authority of Indian (Trai) held a review meeting with telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone Idea (VIL) on issue of UCC detect system. During the meeting, Vodafone Idea made a presentation on a AI/ML (Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning) system that can analyse and detect patterns when it comes to fraudulent messages being sent from mobile numbers by scammers. Trai said permission will now be given to VIL for a pilot, and based on its success Trai will come out with principles/regulations for such solutions in the industry. The deadline for review of implementation of UCC detect system using AI/ML is May 1. "Today we have made it ver

Centre freeing up more 5G spectrum, auction likely next year: Report

5G spectrum: Centre is looking for ways to shift some broadcasting and satellite players from 3.8 GHz to higher frequency

Trai to meet telcos on Feb 17 to discuss calls drops, service issues, 5G

Telecom regulator TRAI has called a meeting with telcos on February 17 to discuss measures and action plan for improving service quality, review of norms, benchmarks for 5G services, and unsolicited commercial communications. The meeting assumes significance as improvement in telecom service quality is bound to cheer mobile customers, irked by call drops and patchy networks. It also comes at a time when ultra high speed 5G services are rolling out across the country. So far, as many as 200 cities in India have seen launch of 5G services, the next generation of technology that promises turbocharged speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G) and low latency connectivity. Issues around service quality have been in the spotlight over the last few months. The Telecom Department back in December met operators to discuss rising instances of call drops and service quality-related issues, as it deliberated on policy measures that can be considered for improving call quality. In a statement on .

Vi targeting tier 3 cities to protect rural customer base: Report

Vi is losing customers every month and it has been unable to raise funds

Trai recommends 10-year renewal for multi-system operators' registrations

The authority recommends that all such registrations should be deemed to expire after eight months from the date of implementation

Bharti Airtel sees limited scope of 5G monetisation currently: Executive

Fewer people upgrading to 5G handsets, says top executive

Airtel plans to invest additional Rs 27-28,000 crore with focus on 5G

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has plans to invest Rs 27,000-28,000 crore in telecom network with a focus on 5G rollout, a company official said on Wednesday. While the company is planning to increase capital expenditure by 10-15 per cent, it has no plans to charge a premium rate for 5G services as it has not worked in several countries that tried to do so. "Airtel capex will be in line with that spent in the last three years. It may go up and down because of the faster rollout of 5G-- around Rs 27,000-28,000 crore. We may see an upsurge in one year and gradually moderate around the same level," the official, who did not wish to be named, told PTI. The company earlier had an annual average capex in the range of Rs 24,000-25,000 crore. The official said that capex is being largely spent on radios (mobile antennas), fibre, broadband, enterprise technology data centres etc. According to data shared by the telecom ministry, Bharti Airtel has rolled out 3,293 base stations for 5G till .