Mobile, Internet, etc

The government on Monday said in the Lok Sabha that a special audit has observed that Reliance Communication and its other subsidiaries under reported revenues during 2006-07 and 2007-08.

Telecom companies are in a ‘do or die’ price war, but not all of them are unhappy. In fact, this war is proving to be a boon for new entrants, giving them a chance to gain customers.

Telecom major BSNL on Wednesday said its proposed acquisition of Kuwait’s Zain Telecom is on hold, as the state-run firm has not got the required information from domestic company Vavasi, which was trying to rope in the PSU as a consortium partner for the deal.

The government on Tuesday cleared 17 FDI proposals worth Rs 4,551 crore, including a proposal by Analjit Singh and Asim Ghosh to part-sell their stakes in the second largest GSM operator Vodafone.

Tata DoCoMo, the GSM brand of Tata Teleservices Ltd, on Sunday extended its per-second-billing scheme to roaming calls, intensifying the tariff war in India’s fast growing wireless telecom market.

Bharti Airtel on Friday cut mobile roaming rates by 60 per cent for its 115 million users, opening a new turf in the ongoing tariff war. Under the new plan ‘Airtel Turbo’, users will be charged 60 paisa per minute on all incoming calls while roaming.

Weeks after India’s top mobile players got into one paisa per second billing tariff war, Airtel on Friday launched a new bill plan slashing mobile roaming rates by nearly 60 per cent and signalling a tariff war in the wireless market.

Nokia on Monday announced that consumers owning the charger model AC 3E, which comes packed with the popular Nokia 7210, can get a free replacement provided they have bought the phone between June 15 and August 9, 2009. The fault was discovered during a routine quality control process by Nokia.

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on Friday announced the launch of per-second billing plan, joining a host of mobile phone operators who have already introduced such tariff scheme.

State-run telecom operator Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) today said it will offer new 3G prepaid connections for Rs 109 in its Mumbai circle.

The mobile phone empire of Malaysian billionaire Ananda Krishnan launched an initial public offering on Wednesday to raise at least $3.4 billion in the biggest share sale in Southeast Asia.

Rejecting allegations of alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation to telecom firms, Communication and IT Minister A Raja on Saturday said he had not deviated from the norms followed by his predecessors.

Rejecting allegations of alleged irregularities in spectrum allocation to telecom firms, Communication and IT Minister A Raja on Saturday said he had not deviated from the norms followed by his predecessors.

The government today approved Norwegian telecom firm Telenor’s proposal to raise stake in its Indian joint venture Unitech Wireless to 74 per cent, the maximum permitted in the sector.

Telecom regulator TRAI today said it will float a consultation paper on merger and acquisitions in the sector by the next month, a move that could unleash the second wave of consolidation in the sector.

Telecom regulator TRAI today said that operators will have to provide an optional tariff of per second call along with other packages or plans.

Telecom wizard Sunil Mittal has said Bharti Airtel would not call South Africa’s MTN again, after renewed merger talks between the two companies failed for want of government approval.

A consortium comprising BSNL, Delhi-based Vavasi and MTNL, among others, on Monday said it has started negotiations for acquiring a large stake in Zain Telecom, a company headquartered in Kuwait but with large operations in Africa.

A consortium comprising India’s telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL, among others, on Monday said it has started negotiations for acquiring control of Kuwait’s biggest phone company Zain Telecom that has presence in 24 countries.

Indian telecom operators may soon be asked to compulsorily give their customers the option of paying tariff based on usage per second instead of the current per minute pulse, sector regulator TRAI said on Monday.