ITV

Category: Telecom

  • Airtel rolls out #5Gforbusiness with global firms and leading brands

    Airtel rolls out #5Gforbusiness with global firms and leading brands

    Mumbai: Bharti Airtel has rolled out the #5Gforbusiness initiative to demonstrate a wide range of enterprise-grade use cases using high speed and low latency networks.

    As part of the initiative, Airtel is joining forces with leading global consulting and technology companies such as Accenture, AWS, CISCO, Ericsson, Google Cloud, Nokia, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to work with industry-leading brands such as Apollo Hospitals, Flipkart, and several leading manufacturing companies to test 5G based solutions.

    These solutions will be deployed on the 5G test spectrum allotted to Airtel and include use cases like smart factory, smart healthcare, 5G powered quality inspection, digital twin, connected frontline workforce, and AR/VR based use cases amongst others. The use case demonstrations will be conducted both at end-user locations and at Airtel’s advanced 5G lab in the network experience centre at Manesar (Gurgaon).

    “The 5G ecosystem will open limitless possibilities for enterprises to enhance productivity and serve their customers even better with digitally enabled applications,” said Bharti Airtel chief technology officer Randeep Singh Sekhon. “We are delighted to work with our strategic technology partners and some of our enterprise customers to start testing real-life 5G applications of the future. This also offers tremendous learnings across the value chain and lays a solid foundation for future application roadmap.”

    Earlier this year Airtel demonstrated India’s first 5G experience over a live 4G network. It has also demonstrated India’s first rural 5G trial as well as the first cloud gaming experience on 5G. Airtel is also spearheading the O-RAN Alliance initiatives in India to build 5G solutions. It has already announced partnerships with Tata Group, Qualcomm, Intel, Mavenir, and Altiostar.

  • JioPhone Next smartphone to hit shelves this Diwali

    JioPhone Next smartphone to hit shelves this Diwali

    Mumbai: Jio and Google have announced that the JioPhone Next smartphone will be available in stores from Diwali. The JioPhone Next will be the most affordable smartphone in the world with an entry price of Rs 1,999.

    The smartphone will be made available across the country at Reliance Retail’s extensive network of JioMart Digital retail locations. The network of 30,000 retail partners will provide the JioPhone Next with a paperless digital financing option.

    “I am delighted that Google and Jio teams have succeeded in bringing this breakthrough device to Indian consumers in time for the festival season, in spite of the current global supply chain challenges caused by the Covid pandemic,” said Reliance Industries chairman and managing director Mukesh D Ambani. “I have always been a firm believer in the power of the digital revolution to enrich, enable and empower the lives of 1.35 billion Indians. We have done it in the past with connectivity. Now we are enabling it again with a smartphone device.”

    He added, “I heartily congratulate Sundar Pichai and his team at Google, and everyone in Jio who partnered for offering this wonderful Diwali Gift to our countrymen.”

    The JioPhone Next runs on Pragati OS, an optimised version of Android developed by Google and Jio to address the unique needs of millions of smartphone users across the country. It is powered by a Qualcomm processor and has embedded voice-first features that will enable Indians to consume content and navigate the phone in their language of choice. The smartphone will have access to millions of apps via the Google Play Store.

    “The JioPhone Next is an affordable smartphone designed for India, inspired by the belief that everyone in India should benefit from the opportunities the internet creates,” said Alphabet Inc and Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai. “To build it, our teams had to work together to solve complex engineering and design challenges, and I am excited to see how millions of people will use these devices to better their lives and communities.”

  • Broadcasters exploiting NTO 2.0 provisions for a-la-carte pricing: Trai

    Broadcasters exploiting NTO 2.0 provisions for a-la-carte pricing: Trai

    Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Friday said that some broadcasters are exploiting the freedom given for al-a-carte pricing of TV channels and warned that it will keep a strict watch on the industry and not shy away from acting in the larger interest of consumers and the industry.

    With an increase in TV channel subscription rates impending, the Trai said in a statement that the new tariffs announced by leading broadcasters reflects their intention to raise the prices of driver and popular channels, according to a report by PTI.

    These driver channels include general entertainment channels (GECs) and sports channels. The regulator refrained from naming any broadcaster but alluded that some leading broadcasters had hiked channel tariffs arbitrarily.

    The regulator claimed that the prices that some of the broadcasters have announced for their channels are unsustainable, are not demand driven or market driven prices and are against the interest of the consumer.

    This price hike has been announced in the garb of complying with the NTO 2.0, which is not true and rather an attempt to defeat the purpose of NTO that has already benefited the consumer to a large extent, stated Trai.

    Trai further said, “A sustained and misleading campaign is being run to create an impression that the impending price increase is due to the new tariff regime (NTO) 2.0. It is being publicised that any/every consumer who opts for top GECs or sports channels will end up paying an extra amount of Rs 100,” according to the PTI report.

    The purpose of the amendments to regulations for broadcasting and cable services sector was to ensure that no service provider corners undue gains and profiteers at the expense of consumers, as per Trai. It pointed out, “the channel pricing has remained under the prescribed ceiling for 15 years since 2004.”

    Under the provisions of the new framework, broadcasters may freely fix the price of their television channels with certain conditions applicable for inclusion into a bouquet. The regulations state that a channel MRP greater than Rs 12 cannot be included into a bouquet. The framework should result in reduced bills for the consumers, said the regulator.

    The implementation of NTO 2.0 will lead to an era of transparent tariffs and usher in better channel content at the most competitive prices, stated Trai. The regulator said that it is conscious of the time required to implement necessary changes to be carried out to incorporate the considered choices of 150-160 million pay TV households.

  • Vodafone Idea lost 0.83 million wireless subscribers in Aug: Trai

    Vodafone Idea lost 0.83 million wireless subscribers in Aug: Trai

    Mumbai: Vodafone Idea lost 0.83 million wireless subscribers in August, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) subscription data. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have added 0.64 million and 0.13 million wireless subscribers, respectively.

    Total wireless subscribers decreased from 1,186.84 million to 1,186.72 million seeing a net subscriber decline of 1.1 million. Wireless subscriptions in urban areas increased from 650.10 million to 650.39 million, however, wireless subscriptions in rural areas decreased from 536.74 million to 536.33 million, revealed the data.

    Out of 1,186.72 million wireless subscribers, 991.71 million were active. Reliance Jio reported 350.63 million active wireless subscribers, Bharti Airtel stood at 346.84 million, and Vodafone Idea at 236.49 million.

    The number of telephone subscribers increased from 1,209.45 million to 1,209.58 million. Urban telephone subscriptions increased from 670.75 million to 671.31 million, however, the rural subscription decreased from 538.70 million to 538.28 million.

    Trai received information from 499 operators in August versus 455 operators in July and reported that the total broadband subscribers increased from 808.60 million to 813.47 million. Mobile device users grew from 783.39 million to 787.94 million, wired subscribers grew marginally from 24.01 million to 24.09 million and fixed wireless subscribers grew marginally from 1.19 million to 1.24 million.

    The top five service providers constituted 98.75 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers. These were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (447.57 million), Bharti Airtel (205.96 million), Vodafone Idea (123.53 million), BSNL (24.28 million), and Atria Convergence (1.95 million).

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (443.86 million), Bharti Airtel (202.27 million), Vodafone Idea (123.52 million), BSNL (18.19 million), and Tikona Infinet Ltd (0.30 million).

    The top five wired broadband service providers were BSNL (5.49 million), Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (3.71 million), Bharti Airtel (3.69 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.95 million), and Hathway Cable & Datacom (1.08 million).

    The total wireline subscribers increased from 22.61 million to 22.86 million, a net subscriber increase of 0.25 million. Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel led the growth by adding 0.25 million and 0.10 million subscribers, respectively. Vodafone Idea added 7870 subscribers whereas BSNL, MTNL, Tata Telecommunications, Reliance Communications, and Quadrant lost subscribers.  

  • Airtel launches CPaaS solution ‘Airtel IQ Video’ to democratise video streaming

    Airtel launches CPaaS solution ‘Airtel IQ Video’ to democratise video streaming

    Mumbai: Communication solutions provider Bharti Airtel (Airtel) on Tuesday announced the launch of its video platform as a service (CPaaS) ‘Airtel IQ Video’ that will allow businesses to build world-class video streaming products for large and small screens with minimal investment in infrastructure and technology. The solution has been developed by Airtel’s in-house engineering teams.

    Airtel IQ Video is an end-to-end managed solution that brings convenience along with cost benefits. It encompasses a variety of features ranging from app development, content hosting, curation, and lifecycle management to search and discovery, analytics, and monetisation models (advertising, subscriptions, transactions).

    “Airtel IQ Video brings an easy-to-use platform that can enable anyone to quickly build and scale their business in video streaming. This will encourage enterprises to focus on content while Airtel IQ Video anchors the end-to-end technology ensuring a great viewing experience for customers,” stated Bharti Airtel – chief product officer Adarsh Nair. “With Airtel IQ Video, we expect to see more content startups and traditional content companies coming online and directly engaging with consumers digitally.”

    Airtel IQ Video is a cloud-based omni-channel communications platform that enables brands to deepen engagement with customers through timely and secure communication. It eliminates the need for multiple communication platforms for different channels while allowing businesses to embed communication services such as voice, SMS, IVR, and video in their applications and digital properties across desktop and mobile, all through a unified platform, said the statement.

    According to RBSA Advisors, India’s video OTT market is expected to touch $12.5 billion by 2030 from the current $1.5 billion. The report also highlighted that the next wave of growth in the OTT landscape will come from tier 2, 3 and 4 cities and regional languages at the centre of this growth story. Keeping these changing trends in sight, existing regional OTTs are looking to scale their technology platforms to accommodate the rising number of users. Traditional content providers such as regional TV broadcasters are looking to digitise their content libraries through OTT applications.

    During the beta phase, Airtel IQ Video has also been deployed by Eros Now and CG Telecom of Nepal. Airtel is expecting to onboard 50+ brands on the platform in the coming year as interest from the market has been high.

    “We have cherished our partnership with Airtel over the years and are now excited about our technology collaboration. Their robust infrastructure and extensive network coverage have been helping us deliver blockbuster content seamlessly to the end consumers,” shared Eros Now- CEO Ali Hussein. “Airtel’s latest ‘Airtel IQ Video’ platform is an innovative offering that is built to scale and can assist Eros Now in reinforcing its value proposition to the rapidly expanding video subscriber base.” 

  • Trai may relax criteria to set up satellite earth station gateways

    Trai may relax criteria to set up satellite earth station gateways

    Mumbai: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) is expected to release a consultation paper on licensing and framework of satellite earth station gateways, said Trai chairman PD Vaghela, according to a report by PTI.

    The regulator is also planning a consultation paper on developing a comprehensive, single window, online common portal, having inter-departmental linkages for transfer of application and information for parallel processing.  

    Vaghela was addressing a virtual event organised by the newly formed Indian Space Association on Monday.  

    Currently, only service licences are permitted to set up earth stations and Trai believes that there is a need to allow multiple stakeholders to set up earth stations which will attract investment and increase satellite capacities.

    According to the report by PTI, Vaghela emphasised the need for the convergence of laws and governance to address the rapid technological convergence happening in the communications and space sector. Trai will form inter-departmental linkages between the telecom department, ministry of information and broadcasting, and department of space, to create a common online portal that will be engaged in granting approval, permission, allocation, renewal, cancellation, and revocation as well as facilitate transfer of application and information for parallel processing

  • Airtel brings in Rajiv Sharma as head of investor relations

    Airtel brings in Rajiv Sharma as head of investor relations

    Mumbai: Bharti Airtel Ltd (Airtel) has brought Rajiv Sharma on board as head of investor relations, effective 1 October. He takes over from Komal Sharan, who is moving to a new role within the Bharti group.

    In his new role, Sharma will report to Airtel India and South Asia chief financial officer Badal Bagri. He will be responsible for ensuring that the telecom company is appropriately represented with investors, lenders, equity partners, and financial institutions.

    Welcoming Sharma on board, Airtel India and South Asia MD & CEO Gopal Vittal said, “I am confident his rich experience and deep understanding of the telecom industry will add immense value to our engagement with the investor and financial community. I wish Rajiv the very best in his role and look forward to working closely with him.”

    Sharma is a qualified chartered accountant with over 18 years of experience in capital markets, corporate strategy, consulting, IPOs, fundraising, and equity research. He joins Airtel from Spark Capital Advisors where he was director – investment banking & head – digital research. Previously, he also worked with companies such as SBICAP Securities, HSBC, and PWC.

  • DoT amends VSAT license rules to enable infrastructure sharing

    DoT amends VSAT license rules to enable infrastructure sharing

    Mumbai: The department of telecommunications (DoT) has amended the commercial VSAT license rules to enable sharing of satellite infrastructure and backhaul connectivity for cellular mobile services and access service providers.  

    According to the new rules, the licensee may share its own active and passive infrastructure for providing other services authorized to it under any other telecom license issued by the licensor. The sharing of infrastructure will be governed by the terms and conditions of respective licenses and amendments/guidelines to be issued by the licensor from time to time. It also mentioned that an authorised gateway hub operated by the satellite provider itself is permitted to be shared with the satellite bandwidth seeker.

    DoT also amended the existing rules to allow backhaul connectivity for cellular mobile services through satellite using VSAT to the access service providers; it allowed backhaul connectivity using VSAT to access service providers to establish Wi-Fi hotspots and mandated that the VSAT terminal of the commercial VSAT CUG service provider, which is used to provide cellular mobile backhaul link or Wi-Fi mobile backhaul link, is to be located in the service area of the access provider, where the backhaul link is used.

    The VSAT hub can be located anywhere in the country. The link from the hub station to the respective network element of the cellular mobile network can be provided through the terrestrial obtained from an authorised service provider.

    The move is expected to reduce the capital and operational expenditure of telcos and is a long pending demand of the industry. Earlier, only mobile towers and some active electronic components in the network were allowed to be shared among telecom service providers.

    The amendment which allows the use of satellite service through VSAT terminals to provide backend connectivity for mobile networks is expected to boost the rollout in difficult terrain and remote areas.

  • Reliance Jio added 6.5 million mobile subscribers in July: Trai

    Reliance Jio added 6.5 million mobile subscribers in July: Trai

    Mumbai: Reliance Jio added 6.5 million mobile subscribers in July, according to the latest data shared by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Airtel added 1.9 million mobile subscribers and Vodafone Idea lost 1.4 million subscribers, the telecom regulator said.

    BSNL lost 1.01 million subscribers as well. MTNL and Reliance Communication lost a few thousand subscribers. Net mobile subscribers grew by 6 million.

    Total wireless subscribers grew from 1180.83 million to 1186.84 million at a monthly growth rate of 0.51 per cent. Wireless subscriptions in urban areas increased from 646.29 million to 650.10 million. In rural areas, it increased from 534.54 million to 536.74 million.

    Out of total wireless subscribers, 989.34 were active mobile subscribers. Reliance Jio had 346.49 million active subscribers, Bharti Airtel had 346.07 and Vodafone Idea had 238.39.

    Total telephone subscribers increased from 1202.57 million to 1209.45 million at the end of July. Urban telephone subscriptions increased from 666.10 million to 670.75 million. Rural subscriptions increased from 536.47 million to 538.70 million.

    As per information received by 455 operators in July 2021 in comparison to 440 operators in June 2021, total broadband subscribers increased from 792.78 million to 808.68 million at a monthly growth rate of 2 per cent. Wired subscribers increased from 23.52 million to 24.01 million, mobile device users increased from 768.61 million to 783.39 million and fixed wireless subscribers increased from 0.65 million to 1.19 million.

    The top five service providers constituted 98.77 per cent market share of the total broadband subscribers at the end of July. These service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (446.69 million), Bharti Airtel (201.77 million), Vodafone Idea (123.97 million), BSNL (24.26 million), and Atria Convergence (1.93 million).

    The top five wired broadband service providers were BSNL (5.83 million), Bharti Airtel (3.54 million), Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (3.47 million), Atria Convergence Technologies (1.93 million), and Hathway Cable & Datacom (1.07 million).

    The top five wireless broadband service providers were Reliance Jio Infocomm (443.61 million), Bharti Airtel (198.23 million), Vodafone Idea (123.97 million), BSNL (17.89 million), and Tikona Infinet Ltd (0.31 million).  

    Wireline subscribers increased from 21.74 million to 22.61 million with a monthly growth rate of 4.04 per cent. The share of urban and rural subscribers stood at 91.32 per cent and 8.68 per cent. BSNL and MTNL held 47.93 per cent of the wireline market. Net wireline subscribers increased by 8.7 million. BSNL added 5.06 million, Reliance Jio added 0.25 million and Bharti Airtel added 0.12 million subscribers, respectively.

  • Government names K Rajaram as new telecom secretary

    Government names K Rajaram as new telecom secretary

    Mumbai: The central government has appointed K Rajaram as the new telecom secretary, according to a report by Economic Times.

    Rajaram is a Tamil Nadu cadre 1989-batch Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officer, currently working as an additional secretary in the Department of Economic Affairs (DEA). He takes over the role of telecom secretary as his predecessor Anshu Prakash retires on 30 September.

    His appointment has been announced just a week after the government declared several relief measures for the telecom sector, including steps to convert the government’s dues to telcos as equity over time in a bid to ensure a three-private player telecom market.