Page 6 - Telecom Sector

DoT asks M2M service providers to register by Sep 30 or face disruption

The Department of Telecom has asked unregistered machine-to-machine service providers to register by month-end, as non-registration may lead to disruption of services, an official statement said on Tuesday. As of June 30, there were 5.2 crore M2M cellular mobile connections. "Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has urged all unregistered M2M Service Providers (M2M SPs) and WPAN/WLAN (devices connected wirelessly) Connectivity Providers for M2M Services, to register with DoT immediately and latest by September 30, 2024, to avoid disruption of their M2M services. "Non-compliance may lead to withdrawal or disconnection of telecom resources obtained from the Authorised Telecom Licensees," the statement said. The segment is dominated by Bharti Airtel with 2.82 crore connections with a market share of 53.86 per cent, followed by Vodafone Idea Limited, Reliance Jio and BSNL with a market share of 27.77, 12.80 and 5.58 per cent, respectively. M2M services comprise devices that can be .

Airtel, Nokia, MediaTek achieve 300 Mbps upload speed on 5G during trial

Telecom operator Bharti Airtel, MediaTek and Nokia have achieved 300 megabits per second upload speed on a 5G network during a recently concluded trial, a joint statement said on Monday. The trial comprised the combined use of a set of mid-band spectrums, utilising the latest generation chipset. "The trial aimed at maximising the uplink performance was conducted at Airtel's tech lab and achieved uplink speeds of 300 Mbps, setting a new benchmark in 5G network performance. It underscores Airtel's commitment to providing innovative solutions that meet the ever-growing demands of a connected world," the statement said. The trial enhanced upload speeds by aggregating frequency bands of 3.5 gigahertz and 2.1 GHz. "This trial not only stands a testament to our philosophy of enhancing our state-of-the-art network infrastructure and delivering an unmatched 5G user experience but will also greatly enhance our network's uplink performance, resulting in faster data speeds and improved ...

Jio aims to add a mn broadband homes every month, says Mukesh Ambani

Jio will aim to add a million broadband homes every month to achieve 100 million home broadband customers in a record time, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani said on Thursday. While speaking at RIL's 47th AGM, Ambani said JioAirFiber clocked first million customers in six month. "By leveraging our deep-tech capabilities and continuously optimising every process, we acquired the next 1 million air fibre customers in just 100 days. We are now challenging ourselves to add a million homes every 30 days. With this momentum, we are confident of reaching our target of 100 million home broadband customers at record speed," he said. He said Jio is also targeting over 20 million small and medium businesses, 1.5 million schools and colleges, over 70,000 hospitals, and 1.2 million doctors to connect with broadband.

Union Bank freezes accounts of telecom firm MTNL over non-payment of dues

Union Bank of India has frozen all accounts of state-run telecom company MTNL for non-payment of dues, a regulatory filing said on Wednesday. Union Bank of India informed the company on August 21 about freezing of all its accounts over non-payment of loans, debt-ridden MTNL said. "This is to inform you that Union Bank of India vide its Letter... dated August 21, 2024 has informed MTNL that its account has slipped to NPA with effect from August 12, 2024 due to which all accounts of MTNL with Union Bank of India have been freezed automatically," MTNL said. Earlier this month, MTNL informed stock exchanges that it has defaulted on bank loan payments worth Rs 422.05 crore. According to the details shared by MTNL, it has defaulted on the payment of Rs 155.76 crore on debt raised from Union Bank of India, Rs 140.37 crore from State Bank of India, Rs 40.33 crore from Bank of India, Rs 40.01 crore from Punjab & Sind Bank, Rs 41.54 crore from Punjab National Bank, and Rs 4.04 crore from ...

Financial firms in last-minute rush to comply with Trai mandate on URLs

Most banks said they do not send marketing content in messages containing URLs, so the Trai mandate may not cause disruption for their customers

September 1 deadline: Trai asks top regulators to apply whitelist norms

The telecom regulator directs RBI, SEBI, Home Ministry and others to register the content of text messages

Indian telecom players targeting 10% share in 6G patents in next 3 yrs

Indian telecom players are targeting a share of 10 per cent of all 6G patents and one-sixth contributions to global standards in the next three years, an official statement said on Saturday. Telecom industry players have proposed to systematically align research to 'India's needs' and put in place a vibrant "Standards Community". The proposal came up during the second meeting of Stakeholders Advisory Committee (SAC) on Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) which was chaired by union telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday. "Industry leaders proposed systematically aligning research to India's needs' and put in place a vibrant 'Standards Community' targeting a share of 10 per cent of all 6G patents and one-sixth contributions to global standards in the next 3 years," the statement said. During the first SAC on telecom operators, certain focus areas were identified. Deliberations on international standards and India's share in Intellectual Property and Standard Essential Patent .

Trai asks telcos to blacklist unregistered telemarketers' lines over spam

Sector regulator TRAI on Tuesday directed telcos to disconnect all telecom resources of unregistered telemarketers found making spam calls, and to blacklist them for up to two years. Further, TRAI has asked telcos to comply immediately with its latest directive and submit regular updates on action taken in this regard on a fortnightly basis. Issuing its directive to telcos, TRAI said this "decisive action" is expected to significantly reduce spam calls and provide relief to consumers. TRAI in a release said it has issued "directives to access providers to disconnect all telecom resources of unregistered senders for making spam calls and to blacklist such senders under the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulations, 2018" regulations. Towards this, TRAI has mandated all access service providers to stop voice promotional calls whether pre-recorded or computer generated or otherwise from all unregistered senders or telemarketers (UTMs) using bulk connections or .

Vodafone Idea Q1 FY25 results: Net loss narrows to Rs 6,432 crore

Arpu remains stagnant; telco sees 4G subscriber base grow

A slice of Britain: Bharti's BT deal will play out in the long run

Amid demands for consistent and reliable telecom service, there might be an excellent opportunity for those who wish to invest in new 5G infrastructure

7.3 million connections obtained on fake documents shut down: DoT

66 lakh connections axed after subscribers found to be holding more than the legal number of SIM cards

Consultation paper on spectrum allocation for satcom soon: Trai Chairman

Telecom regulator will begin, in a month, the consultation process for deciding the terms, conditions and other modalities for administrative allocation of spectrum for satellite-based telecom services. India's satellite communications sector is "flourishing" and has the potential to propel the country to new heights, TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said at 'India SatCom 2024' organised by Broadband India Forum (BIF). "Regarding the spectrum requirement of space-based communications, the Telecom Act has provision for assignment of spectrum through administrative process for certain satellite-based communications services. Government has sent a reference seeking recommendations of TRAI on terms and conditions for spectrum assignment to certain satellite-based telecom services," Lahoti said. TRAI will soon come out with a consultation paper on the matter. "We have received a reference from the government...it should take about a month's time to issue the consultation paper... you can

Bharti Airtel's 5G user base rose to 90 million at Q1-end: MD Gopal Vittal

Vittal said early signs of industry wide tariff hikes are encouraging, Rs 300 ARPU needed

Bharti Airtel Q1 FY25 results: Profit rises 158% on new 4G, 5G users

Continued growth in WiFi category helped Q1 gains; Arpu rises to Rs 211

Bharti Hexacom Q1 results: PAT almost doubles to Rs 511 cr, revenue up 14%

Telecom operator Bharti Hexacom, which operates under the Airtel brand, reported over two-fold jump in its profit to Rs 511.2 crore in the first quarter ended on June 30, 2024, compared to Rs 253.2 crore in the same period a year ago. Total revenues of Bharti Hexacom increased by 14 per cent on a year-over-year basis to Rs 1,910.6 crore during the reported quarter from Rs 1,681.7 crore a year ago. Mobile revenues grew by 12.9 per cent Y-o-Y on the back of improved realisation and sustained customer additions. The Average revenue per user (ARPU), a key matrix to determine telecom operators' growth, for the quarter increased to Rs 205 from Rs 194 a year ago driven by continued mix improvement and focus on quality acquisitions. "We added 2.8 million smartphone customers to our network over last year, an increase of 16.3 per cent YoY. We continue to deliver industry-leading ARPU along with growing average data usage per customer at 25.7 GB per month. We rolled out 268 network towers an

Call rates in India among lowest in world: Telecom minister Scindia

India now has 117 crore mobile connections and 93 crore internet connections, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday while noting that call rates in the country are one of the lowest in the world. Scindia said the cost of call for every minute was 53 paisa and it has come down to just 3 paisa now, which is a 93 per cent reduction, one of the lowest rates in the world. At present, India has 117 crore mobile connectivity and 93 crore internet connections, he said. He said the cost of one GB data is Rs 9.12, which is cheapest in the world. The minister said under the Digital India Initiative, various technology-led startups and innovation schemes like Technology Incubation and Development of Entrepreneurs (TIDE 2.0), Gen-Next Support for Innovative Startups (GENESIS), domain specific Centres of Excellence (CoEs) and Next Generation Incubation Scheme (NGIS) have been undertaken with a total funding outlay of around Rs 800 crore in tier-2 and tier-3 ...

Centre to pay MTNL's bond interest by Wednesday, says DoT officials

With this date having been passed, the government now has to step in and deposit the necessary funds in the designated trust and retention account at least three days before the due date

Telcos call for tax reforms in telecom sector in Union Budget 2024-25

COAI has restated calls to stop USOF payments, reduce customs duty on equipment

Monthly prepaid ARPU crosses Rs 150 for the first time in Q4 FY24

Monthly prepaid ARPUs have consistently risen for more than six quarters, but the pace has been slow

Data stickiness likely to see users absorb mobile tariff hike: Analysts

Industry ARPU may rise 15% to Rs 220 in FY25