Heena Sharma Blog

  With talks of "timely" 5G roll out in India resurfacing again after a Covid-hit year that delayed spectrum auction, there are hopes that the fifth-generation cellular technology could be a reality in the second half of the year, even though various reports suggest that its mass adoption could still be years away. The government is not selling traditional 5G spectrum in the upcoming auction the bidding for which will commence in March, but a tweak in the notice inviting applications has raised hope that companies will be able to launch 5G even on existing bands. The amendment reduced the notice time period required for telecom companies to give to make advancements and upgrades in technology from one year to six months. Telecom major Bharti Airtel on January 28 successfully demonstrated live 5G service on a use case basis over a commercial network in Hyderabad city over its existing liberalised spectrum in the 1800 MHz band through the NSA (non-standalone) network tec...

Shares of Vodafone Idea jumped 48 per cent to Rs 4.49 on the BSE on Wednesday on the back of heavy volumes on report that the government is unlikely to invoke bank guarantees for now. Till 12:29 pm, a combined 355 million shares changed hands on the counter on the NSE and BSE. In the past seven trading days, the stock has tanked 42 per cent after the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions of telcos seeking a staggered option to pay their Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) related dues. According to a report by The Economic Times, the government is unlikely to invoke Vodafone Idea’s bank guarantees for now, even as the officials of the telecom and finance ministries met Cabinet secretary Rajiv Gauba to discuss ways to ensure that the sector retains three private players, officials said. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has sought legal opinion including that of Solicitor General Tushar Mehta on whether to invoke bank guarantees of companies in case they fail to pay their ...

Chinese telecommunications equipment maker Huawei is expected to conduct 5G trials for Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea , sources said, as the central government finalises the trial runs before the spectrum auctions. Sources said both Airtel and Vodafone have also joined ZTE, Nokia and Ericsson, apart from Huawei, for conducting the 5G trials. Reliance Jio will rope in South Korean equipment maker Samsung. State-owned BSNL is also likely to go with ZTE. The firms have submitted applications for 5G trials, industry sources said. The Chinese firm had had come under a cloud after there were allegations that its electronic and telecom devices helped China to spy on US corporations and agencies. The firm has been barred in Australia and Japan, but welcomed in Russia, Turkey and Saudi Arabia. The central government had even constituted a committee headed by its principal scientific advisor to decide on Huawei’s participation in the 5G trials. The trials would establish use ca...

India's telecom majors have decided to hike their tariffs by around 40%. While the new tariffs announced by Airtel and Vodafone Idea will take effect from midnight of December 3, 2019, Reliance Jio has decided to raise its tariffs from the midnight of December 6, 2019. State-owned BSNL has also announced plans to increase tariffs, but is yet to announce the date for the same. The move comes after the recent Supreme Court judgment on Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) which has left the telecom majors saddled with government dues of more than Rs 92,000 crore. Airtel and Vodafone Idea have ended their Rs 169 and 199 plans that offer 1GB and 1.5GB data per day, respectively, for 28 days. Airtel will provide access to its premium content on Airtel Xtream. Jio will be introducing All-in-One plans which will cost 40% higher, but will offer 300% more benefits to customers, the company said. Vodafone Idea and Airtel customers have time until midnight of December 3, 2019 to recharge ...

Strongly opposing a bailout of telecom companies at taxpayers' expense, Reliance Jio on Thursday wrote to Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad saying firms that have been ordered by the Supreme Court to pay past statutory dues have "sufficient" financial capacity to clear their liabilities. It also slammed the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) for writing ex-parte to the government on the financial distress in the sector, saying the body was "blackmailing" to "extract relief from the government" after all legal recourse had expired. "We submit that the so-called affected service providers have sufficient financial capacity to pay the government dues by monetising their existing assets/investments and by issuing fresh equity in their companies," it wrote to Prasad. Read More Article Source -> Business Standard

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....

Vodafone Idea Ltd . plans to raise as much as 25,000-crore rupees ($3.5 billion) via a rights offering to help India’s largest mobile-phone carrier fend off Asia’s richest man, who continues to roil the industry by providing 4G Internet at prices that would drive most carriers bankrupt in other countries. Vodafone Group Plc will contribute as much as 11,000 crore rupees, while India’s Aditya Birla Group will pump in as much as 7250 crore rupees, according to a statement on Wednesday. The plan underscores how Indian carriers have yet to figure out how to compete against billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd ., which offers packages with enough data to watch 46 hours of YouTube videos for about $2 a month. Vodafone Idea itself was formed last year after a couple of the industry’s biggest players merged to create an operator big enough to withstand Jio’s low prices. Separately, Vodafone Idea is also planning to sell its 11.5 per cent stake in Indus Towers Lt...

There's no denying the fact that a hike in fuel prices , especially diesel which is a key transportation fuel, affects the prices of groceries making commodities of daily use expensive for the masses. But there's another way that a surge in fuel prices is likely to have an impact on your pocket. ALSO READ: With consecutive hikes, petrol crosses Rs 90-mark in Maharashtra's Parbhani According to the ET report, diesel cost forms seven to eight per cent of the total revenue of a telecom company and a continuous hike in its price is likely to have an impact on the company's Ebitda margins in the July-September period. Telecom industry is the second largest buyer of diesel after the Railways and spends nearly Rs 90 billion on it on an annual basis. The dip in margins is another hit for the telecom industry which is reeling under the pressure of nearly Rs 8 trillion of debt, ET reports, caused by a price war started with the entry of Reliance Jio into the sector. Rea...