Mobile, Internet, etc

Mobile phone users will finally be able to access advanced data transfer and high-speed internet on their handsets through 3G technology and broadband wireless access (BWA), post-September 2010. The department of telecom (DoT) has set September as the timeline when successful bidders will be allowed to use the allotted airwaves for commercial operation.
The government on [...]

India will hold the much-delayed bandwidth auctions for third generation, or 3G, mobile phone services on April 9, the federal government said Wednesday, paving the way for telecom operators to offer high-speed voice and data applications.
The government will invite applications from prospective bidders from Feb. 25 and the last day for submitting bids [...]

American Tower Corp.’s Indian subsidiary agreed to acquire the Essar Group’s tower unit for about $430 million to increase its presence in emerging markets.
The transaction, announced in statements today, is American Tower’s third acquisition in India in 12 months. It will more than double the number of cell towers the company will operate in the [...]

The union Budget 2010-11 neglected the telecom industry’s special demands. Telcos were looking at a rationalisation of tax and levies, uniform license fee of one per cent of the AGR. Telcos wanted a re-look at direct tax, tax holidays and section 81 (A), a re-look at licenses and indirect taxes. As far as infrastructure products [...]

India invited mobile phone companies Thursday to take part in its long-delayed auction of third-generation (3G) bandwidth and said successful bidders could offer services from September.
The auction set for April 9 and expected to reap the government billions of dollars has been postponed three times due to bitter discord between ministries over such issues as [...]

Mobile firms in India added a record 19.90 million subscribers in January, taking total users in the world’s fastest-growing, and second-largest, wireless market to 545.05 million, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said.
In December, the firms had added 19.10 million users.Mobile subscribers grew at a monthly average of nearly15
million in 2009.Source

India has welcomed telecom giant Bharti Airtel’s plan to acquire Kuwait-based Zain’s African operations, saying it was a deal that would be “attractive and mutually beneficial” for both the partners.
Issuing a statement on Bharti’s $10.7 billion offer to buy Zain’s African assets, other than those in Sudan and Morocco, India’s Ambassador to Kuwait Ajai Malhotra [...]

It is January third week, and ear-pads seem to be a common sight on Chennai roads. Not for listening to music, but as a protection against the ‘chill’ weather. At 26 degrees Celsius, is this winter, wonders Stefan Kercza, Hub Head, Tamil Nadu & Kerala, Uninor.
Back in Denmark, from where Stefan has relocated to Chennai [...]

India’s largest mobile operator, Bharti Airtel, has joined the race with handset makers such as Nokia, RIM (maker of BlackBerry) and Samsung among others to get a share of the mobile applications market in India.
Bharti’s app store is set to go live on Wednesday (February 10) with over 1,200 applications making it the first Indian [...]

Bharti Airtel, India’s top mobile operator, added 2.85 million mobile subscribers in January, to have a total of 121.7 million, data released by an industry body showed on Friday.
Third-ranked Vodafone Essar, controlled by Vodafone, signed up 2.74 million mobile users in January, to boost its total to 94.1 million, the Cellular Operators Association of India [...]

The subscriber base of the GSM wireless telecom operators saw addition of 13.7 million users in the month January 2010.
According to the data released by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), the industry body representing the GSM operators in India, the overall subscriber base using GSM services reached 394.2 million by January 2010. Source

Reliance Communications, India’s No. 2 mobile operator, said on Monday it added 2.8 million mobile subscribers in January.
The company had 93.8 million mobile users as of end-December, according to the telecoms regulator. Source

Unitech rose 3.12% to Rs 74.40 at 9:57 IST on BSE, extending gains for the second consecutive day, after Telenor bought a further 7.15% stake in telecom joint venture Unitech Wireless by pumping in additional Rs 2022 crore of fresh equity.
Unitech made this announcement during trading hours on Wednesday, 10 February 2010, when the stock [...]

Chinese telecom equipment vendor Huawei Technologies is eyeing over $3.5 billion in revenues from India this year as new operators launch operations, existing players opt for network upgradation and managed services become a necessity in the world’s fastest-growing telecom market.
The Shenzhen-based gearmaker clocked $2.4 billion in revenues in 2009 from India, helped by aggressive pricing [...]

India’s telecom players have set the cash registers ringing for the December quarter with a 4% hike in revenues, bringing cheer to the industry that saw earnings decline sequentially for the preceding two quarters.
The industry notched up Rs 39,756 crore during the quarter ended December 31, helped by a recovery in earnings from both mobile [...]

India’s telecom sector is one of the world’s fastest growing sectors. The industry has maintained its growth momentum despite a slowdown seen across various sectors. India has crossed the 500 million wireless subscriber mark in November last year. With the increase in the number of players and reduced tariffs, this number is expected to soar. [...]

Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile phone company, has reported a slight rise in quarterly profits.
The announcement has come amid a price war that analysts say could turn the country’s telecom boom into a financial bust. Source

There is a strong sign that 2010 could be a watershed year for telecom with lasting and permanent changes in the market structure and competitive landscape. This, in turn, can affect service delivery, coverage, pace of rollout, and ultimately tariffs.
While 2009 was an excellent year in terms of addition of new subscribers and lower [...]

The India Telecom 2009 saw the participation of over 300 companies from more than sixty countries. The theme for this edition of the event was ‘Telecom for inclusive growth’.
The event was graced by former President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam and Thiru A Raja, Union Minister of communications and information technology. The landmark event had the [...]

The Prime Minister’s IT advisor Sam Pitroda said on Friday the Government is not planning to merge BSNL and MTNL, but efforts are on to sell stake in BSNL.
“There is no move to merge BSNL and MTNL”, he told reporters here today, however, adding the Government is considering selling a part of its stakes in [...]