Page 15 - Telecom Services

Reliance Jio's subscriber base jumps to 481 million, 108 million using 5G

The Jio True5G network now carries almost 30% of Jio's mobility data traffic, the company said in its annual report 2023-24

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

Trai chief rules out any rethink on new service quality norms for users

Telecom regulator TRAI on Wednesday ruled out any rethink of new service quality norms that require telcos to compensate users for service outages and raise penalties for not meeting benchmarks. TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said that the norms have been issued after a thorough consultation and due consideration. "We have done very long thinking on this process, the norms have been issued after thorough consultation and due consideration and have been issued keeping in view quality of service that customer should be getting, and that service provider should provide," Lahoti said on sidelines of India SatCom 2024 organised by Broadband India Forum (BIF). The TRAI Chief was replying to a question on whether the regulator would rethink its new norms on service quality. Lahoti further said TRAI expects service providers to upgrade their infrastructure so that consumer gets the right quality of service. It is pertinent to mention that telecom operators will have to compensate subscri

Trai intensifies crackdown on spam, robocalls with new directive to telcos

Telecom firms are only allowed to use the 140 series to make calls to consumers, however, unregistered telemarketers continue to use 10-digit phone numbers, making identification a challenge

Telcos eye 6G rollout with AI-driven network amid ongoing 5G deployment

6G is expected to heavily depend on artificial intelligence, with experts predicting that artificial intelligence algorithms will play a central role in driving the 6G networks autonomously

DoT plans to update trade codes for telco gear for better tracking

Trai wants HSN codes updated to better identify products & trade

12,000 4G sites up, BSNL targets nationwide 4G rollout by year-end

4G sites up in all metro cities & most state capitals, 5G service by early-2025

Airtel Africa's net profit down to $7 million in first quarter of FY25

Continuing devaluation of African currencies and higher finance costs remain drags

Govt to handle $5.1 bn bond payments for MTNL amid liquidity crisis

The company is no longer solvent, said the person, who requested anonymity

Budget 2024: FinMin announces Critical Mineral Mission; what we know so far

Union Budget 2024: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman announced the government will soon conduct the first round of offshore mineral auction round under the Critical Mineral Mission

Budget 2024 retains Rs 1.2 trillion telecom revenue goal for FY25

Despite muted spectrum auctions, non-tax telecom revenue for FY25 higher by 28.5%

Avantel's Q1FY25 net profits tank 39% QoQ: stock hits 10% lower circuit

Avantel registered a decline of 8.75 per cent year-on- year (Y-o-Y) at Rs 7.3 crore in net profits for the June quarter of FY25 versus Rs 8 crore reported in Q1FY24

Telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, telco chiefs discuss sector road map

Jio's Akash Ambani, Airtel's Sunil Mittal, and Vi CEO Akshaya Moondra attend meet

Supreme Court agrees to listen to Vodafone Idea's plea on AGR computation

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,

SAR Televenture looking to raise Rs 450 cr through rights issue and FPO

Telecommunication infrastructure provider SAR Televenture is looking to raise Rs 450 crore through rights issue and follow-on public offer (FPO). This comprises a rights issue of shares worth up to Rs 300 crore and a follow-on public offering (FPO) of up to Rs 150 crore, according to the draft papers. The company proposes to utilise the proceeds to the tune of Rs 273 crore to set up fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) network solutions, Rs 42.5 crore for setting up an additional 1,000 4G/5G telecom towers, Rs 30 crore for incremental working capital requirements and the balance amount for general corporate purposes in FY 2025. The rights issue consists of 1.50 crore equity shares of Rs 2 each at an issue price of Rs 200 per rights share. The issue opens on July 15 and will close on July 22. "Existing shareholders will get one rights share for one equity share held as on record date July 9, 2024," the company announced. Meanwhile, the price band of the FPO has been fixed at Rs 200-Rs 210 per

Survey finds 89% people facing call drops, 9 in 10 calling through OTT

Around 89 per cent of people surveyed have experienced call drops in the last three months and nine in 10 have used Wi-Fi networks to make calls through calling and messaging apps, online survey firm Localcircles said on Monday. The survey conducted between March and June claims to have received a total of 32,000 responses across different questions from 362 districts. The number of responses differed from question to question. "89 per cent of subscribers surveyed face call connection and drop issues, Out of this 89 per cent, 38 per cent of them face it with over 20 per cent of their calls," the survey said. In response to the question on call drop experience, 17 per cent indicated they face issues in more than half of their total phone calls while 21 per cent said that 20-50 per cent of their calls get dropped or disconnected. With most mobile subscribers facing call connection and drop issues, nine in 10 are using OTT (internet calls and messaging apps like WhatsApp) platforms to

Union Budget 2024-25: Here are the key challenges in the telecom sector

Sector experiencing financial stress due to debt burdens and low average revenue per user

Vi shareholders okay Rs 2,458 cr preferential issue to Nokia, Ericsson

Offering stake to its vendors will allow Vi to partially clear outstanding dues

Space regulator nod must for using non-Indian satellites from April 2025

The government has issued an advisory to satellite television broadcasters to seek authorisation from India's space regulator IN-SPACe for using non-Indian satellites from April 1 next year. In May, the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorisation Centre (IN-SPACe) issued Norms, Guidelines and Procedures (NGP) for the implementation of the Indian Space Policy-2023 which states that only IN-SPACe authorised non-Indian satellites will be allowed to provide services in the country. "With effect from April 1, 2025, only IN-SPACe authorised non-Indian satellites/constellations in any of the frequency bands shall be permitted to enable provisioning of their capacity in India, the advisory issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said, quoting the relevant section of the NGP document. The existing arrangements/mechanisms/processes for provisioning of capacity in any of the frequency bands (C, Ku or Ka) from the Non-Indian Satellite operators can be extended till March 31

Jio, Bharti Airtel may report over 10% growth in Q1FY25, say analysts

Consistent rise in mobile business, subscriber gains to help the two telcos