Heena Sharma Blog

After racking up $59 billion of net debt to survive a brutal war in the world’s second-biggest phone-services market, some of India’s billionaires are bracing for more as their next battle looms: 5G. India seeks to raise $84 billion this year from a sale of airwaves -- most of it for the latest technology tipped to revolutionize connectivity -- posing a conundrum for the carriers controlled by tycoons including Mukesh Ambani , Asia’s wealthiest man. Investment would mean more borrowings, but the reward could be revenue streams never seen before. Operators may soon decide how much more pain they can endure for a high-speed wireless network that can offer better user experience in streaming, gaming and entertainment in a market where Netflix Inc. to Amazon.com Inc. are making inroads. With applications ranging from manufacturing to education and health care, 5G could be the catalyst for India’s digital economy that has the potential to reach $1 trillion by 2025, according to a r...

Vodafone Idea has launched a slew of initiatives for ongoing Kumbh mela, including Milaap service aimed at ensuing safety of children and senior citizens, as well as location alerts and other digital solutions, the company said Thursday. The Milaap services, involves providing RFID (radio frequency identification) tags to children and senior citizens along with the details of parents or guardians. "These RFID tags - enabled with a simple identification process will allow local authorities or police to take any child or senior citizen found unaccompanied or under a panic situation to visit the nearest Vodafone Milaap or Khoya Paya booth. On flashing these RFID tags on the RFID reader, the concerned parent's contact details will be accessed," Vodafone Idea, that owns the Vodafone brand of mobile services, said in a statement. The family member will receive the details of the concerned booth from where they can re-unite with their child, the statement explained....

Days after the Supreme Court imposed curbs on the use of Aadhaar, biometric-issuing authority UIDAI Monday asked telecom companies to submit, within the next 15 days, a plan to stop using the 12-digit unique ID number for customer authentication. A circular to this effect has already been issued to the telecom service providers (TSPs), including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea and others. The communication, seen by PTI, says: "...all TSPs are called upon to immediately take actions in order to comply with the judgement dated 26.09.2018. In this regard, TSPs are hereby directed to submit by 15th October, 2018 an action plan/exit plan to the authority for closure of use of Aadhaar based authentication systems..." The Supreme Court, last week, struck down Section 57 of the Aadhaar Act, which allowed private companies to use the 12-digit biometric ID-based eKYC. Following this, private companies like telecom operators will not be able to use this ins...