ITV

Category: Telecom

  • CCI reviewing Jio-RCom pact for sharing 800 MHz spectrum

    MUMBAI: Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm has sought approval from the Competion Commission (CCI) for the proposed spectrum sharing deal with Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications. The CCI website states that the deal is under review.

    Jio is waiting for an approval from the CCI for pacts entered into with Reliance Communications (RCom) and its subsidiary Reliance Telecom Ltd (RTL) for using 800 MHz spectrum, PTI reported. Jio, as is known, is the latest entrant in the highly competitive Indian telecom market.

    Jio had entered into an agreement with RCom for acquisition of right to use some spectrum in the 800 MHz band. Besides, it had, in January 2016, signed agreements with RTL and RCom providing with the option related to use of the spectrum.

    The pacts were “pursuant to the guidelines for trading of access spectrum by access service providers” issued by the Department of Telecommunications on October 12, 2015, as per the notice submitted to the CCI. According to the notice, Jio was testing its network for providing high definition voice, mobile telephone services, video, data and messaging as on the date of entering into the agreements.

  • CCI rejects Airtel charges against Jio

    MUMBAI: The fair trade regulator has dismissed the case of ‘predatory pricing’ that Airtel alleged against Reliance Jio. Airtel officials declined to comment on the development.

    Just giving free access to its services cannot be termed as ‘anti-competitive’, the Competition Commission of India (CCI) stated.

    Airtel had alleged that Jio, in a bid to race ahead in the telecom competition, had indulged in ‘predatory pricing’ since its commercial launch on 5 September 2016.

    With unfair trade practice of free services, Airtel alleged, Jio had used its financial muscle to gain a foothold into the telecom world of stiff competition.

    Airtel charges, the trade regulator stated, would not be considered ‘anti-competitive’ since Jio’s offers were to attract customers.

    A short-term business offer or strategy of a new entrant to penetrate a market cannot be considered as ‘anti-competitive’ in nature and could not be a subject of investigation, CCI stated.

  • Airtel-Telenor India merger approved by CCI

    MUMBAI: The Competition Commission of India (CCI), vide its letter of 5 June 2017, has approved the proposed merger of Telenor (India) Communications Private Limited with Bharti Airtel Limited.

    Telenor India and Airtel had on 1 June filed the joint company application before the New Delhi bench of the National Company Law Tribunal for approval of the proposed scheme of merger.

    Airtel recently stated that it has received the merger approval from Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), National Stock Exchange of India Limited (NSE) and Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE).

    The Sunil Bharthi Mittal owned company entered into a deal with Telenor South Asia Investments to buy Telenor India’s operations in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Bihar, UP (East), Assam, and UP (West). These seven circles provide about 35 per cent to Airtel’s total revenue. Airtel will also get on some of the Nordic telco’s political liabilities.

  • Telcos can’t discriminate tariffs in same category

    MUMBAI: Telecom regulator TRAI has directed telecom operators to stop providing discriminatory tariffs to the subscribers of the same category and report all plans to the sector watchdog within seven days of their launch.

    The decision, signed by KaushaI Kishore, advisor (F&EA), comes soon after Reliance Jio’s complaint against other players, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular.

    Jio had filed complaint against Bharti Airtel in April saying the telecom major contravened tariff rules by releasing misleading offers and arbitrarily discriminating among its own consumers subscribing to the same plan. Bharti Airtel spokesperson had denied the allegations saying the company was fully complying with all regulatory guidelines, including tariff orders.

    TRAI has now said that all the tariffs offered to the consumers shall be in accordance with the provisions of Telecommunication Tariff Order, 1999 and shall not be discriminatory between the subscribers of the same class and to ensure that every tariff that is offered to a customer is invariably reported to the Authority.

    TRAI said it has the duty to notify in the Official Gazette the rates at which the telecommunication services within India and outside India shall be provided under the TRAI Act, 1997. The Authority may notify different rates for different persons or class of persons for similar telecommunication services and where different rates are flxed.

    The Authority, while adopting the forbearance regime in tariff, has made it mandatory for all the service providers to file their tariffs with TRAI within seven working days from the date of implementation of the said tariff;

    No exception/exemption has been granted for tariff reporting except for bulk customers and, in that case too, it is compulsory for all service providers to provide details about the number of plans and the bulk customers availing them along with a certification, for information and record of the Authority.

  • 100% more Airtel data offered in b’band plans

    MUMBAI: Following its rollout of ‘V-Fiber’ superfast broadband to serve the exploding demand for reliable high speed data solutions in Indian homes, now introduces larger bundles of data at existing prices to enable customers to do more New proposition designed to drive adoption of high speed broadband in the country and accelerate the journey towards digitally connected homes

    Bharti Airtel, India’s largest telecommunications services provider, has announced refreshed home broadband proposition to serve the exploding demand for high speed data in today’s digital homes and drive the adoption of superfast broadband in the country. The new plans now offer up to 100% more high speed data benefits within the same monthly rentals.

    In-home high speed data consumption in India is increasing exponentially with customers looking to stream HD/4K content, download heavy file across a variety of connected devices like smartphones, tablets, Smart TVs, Internet TV solutions and security solutions etc. Fixed broadband (Wi-Fi) continues to be the preferred mode of high speed data delivery given its consistent speeds and in the near future will also enable the IoT play for homes with connected appliances and much more.

    To serve this growing demand and enable a seamless high speed data experience in a multi-device environment, Airtel has built a future ready network and introduced ‘V-Fiber’ that delivers consistently superfast broadband speeds of up to 100 Mbps to homes. The ‘V-Fiber’ high speed broadband experience is available to customers within the same plan rentals and requires only a quick modem switch.

    Airtel’s refreshed broadband plans are designed to unlock the ‘V-Fiber’ superfast broadband experience with generous bundles of high speed data within existing plan rentals that enable Indian homes to get on to the digital super highway.

    For instance, the Rs. 599 plan in Mumbai now offers 20 GB high speed data compared to 8 GB earlier, while the Rs. 699 plan will now offer 30 GB of high speed data compared to 15 GB earlier. The Rs. 999 plan now offers 60 GB compared to 30 GB and the Rs. 2599 plan offers 400 GB compared to 200 GB. Similar large increments in data benefits have been effected at every price point in every city with unlimited calling to any network available across all plans.

    Hemanth Kumar Guruswamy, CEO – Homes, Bharti Airtel (India) said, “Our new plans are aimed at putting India onto the digital superhighway and complement our superfast broadband offerings like ‘V-Fiber’. At Airtel, our mission is to enable a superior digital experience and offer great value to our customers. Our customers can now add to their online experience with exciting speeds backed by unmatched service reliability. We believe these new plans will also drive the adoption of high speed broadband in the country.”

    Existing customers will be upgraded to the new benefits automatically within the current bill cycle while new customers can choose from a host of plans that offer great value backed by best-in-class high speed broadband experience.

    The upgraded plans are yet another addition to Airtel’s initiatives to innovate products that offer great value to customers. Recently, the company rolled out Airtel Surprises and myHome Rewards that offered free additional data benefits to customers.

  • Indian standards for 5G rollout to be ready by ’18, says govt agency exec

    MUMBAI: India is getting future ready and has started serious work on identifying and formalizing the standards for the rollout of 5G. The standards are likely to be ready by 2018. This was stated by the D P De, Sr DDG, Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) at the 5G India 2017 Conference here. TEC is the nodal agency of the Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India responsible for drawing up of standards, generic requirements, interface requirements, service requirements and specifications for telecom products, services and networks.

    The first 5G India 2017 Conference was organized in national capital by Bharat Exhibitions with support from COAI, 3GPP, TSDSI and saw massive participation from various telecommunication industry verticals including networks, service providers, manufacturers etc. The introductory address and inaugural discussion regarding the future of 5G was initiated by Mr. Adrian Scrase, Chief Technical Officer, ETSI (European Telecommunications Standards Institute and Head of 3GPP MCC (Mobile Competence Core).

    “5G will be an overarching umbrella of networks rather than a replacement technology and will usher in significant economic, political and environmental benefits,” pointed out Adrian Scrase during his introductory address.

    According to industry representatives and sectoral experts gathered at the venue, the key drivers for 5G rollout and adoption is going to be massive anticipated increase in data consumption, fast increasing digitalized life and services, growth of smart cities and the need to have an all encompassing network architecture which can utilized all available spectrum band rather than replace the existing networks.

    “Connected devices, digitized lifestyle where almost every aspect of human life will be consumed digitally calls for a new paradigm shift in telecommunication eco-system,” said Shyam P Mardikar, CTO (Mobile Networks), Bharti Airtel Limited.

    “We have moved from the Voice phase to Video consumption and next phase will be Virtuality which will demand humungous data availability and networks have to evolve to keep pace. This will be a real challenge,” added Mardikar. He also pointed out that networks will have to become flat, ubiquitous and nearer to consumers in the coming days to cater to fast changing digitized life style.

    “5G will address the requirements of coming decade,” said Radhey Shyam Sarda, Director, Wireless Solution Sales, Huawei. He also pointed out that 5G architecture is targeting different spectrum bands where each will play different roles and within the emerging scheme of things, C-band and Group 30/40 is emerging as the globally harmonized bands. “Enhanced user experience, dynamic spectrum sharing, pairing of bands will be the mainstay of 5G architecture” added Sarda.

    Rajan S Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), said, “That consumers side demand, resource deployment and commercial viability will be the main drivers for the operators for 5G rollout.” “It may be easy to rollout 5G in a country like Japan or South Korea but India is a fundamentally different market with diverse needs. There would be huge financial and structural challenges. We have to make India specific case for 5G.” advised Mathews.

    VMware network function virtualisation common platform architecture has proven to be the deployment model for mobile core solutions says VMWare. It will become the foundation for 5G Networks.

    Besides the above mentioned industry leaders, the inaugural session was presented by Jalaj Choudhri, EVP (Networks), Reliance Communications Ltd; Chandan Kumar, Director – Marketing & Public Affairs, Huawei; Dharma Rajan, Lead NFV Solutions Architect, VMWare, USA.

    Experts across board did agree that sooner or later the telecommunication services will migrate to 5G architecture and time has come to start serious preparation for standardization and network up-gradation.

    Inaugural session was followed by two technical sessions which deliberated on a host of issues related to 5G ecosystem including network up-gradation, product support and development, policy & regulation, IoT, security challenges and other issues.

    Making 5G India 2017 a truly global platform to conduct business, global players such as Huawei, VMWare, Keysight Technologies, Juniper, RedHat, Rohde & Schwarz, RV Solutions and TrustinSoft showcased and presented their innovative and cutting edge technologies to 500 plus industry audience at the event.

  • What are the rules for testing telecom networks

    MUMBAI: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, on Monday, started a consultation process to frame rules for the network testing before full-fledged commercial launch after witnessing the controversy related to Reliance Jio’s free trial run.

    “The DoT requested the Authority (TRAI) to provide its recommendations on testing of network before commercial launch of services including enrolment of customers for testing purposes before commercial launch, duration of testing period etc…,” TRAI consultation paper stated.

    Incumbent telecom operators had voiced concern that enrolment of subscribers and provision of service free of cost before commercial launch are leading to a non-level playing field. They also said the volume of voice traffic generated by such test users, due to free offers, is choking points of interconnect, and impairing the quality of service of other operators. The last date for seeking comments on the issue is May 29 and for counter comments 12 June.

    Telecom service providers (TSPs) are bound by roll-out obligations and other licence conditions, TRAI stated. The TSPs are required to install applicable systems for providing mobile services to the subscribers. It is important that these systems are tested before commencement of commercial services because a licensee has to ensure that its service meets the Quality of Service (QoS) standards prescribed by the Licensor or TRAI. As per the general practice, the Telecom Service Providers use test SIM Cards to check the quality of network, before the commercial launch of services.

    The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), through its letter dated 9 September 2016, communicated that at present, network testing is being carried out by licensees on the basis of erstwhile practices followed by DoT/BSNL and test SIM Cards are issued by such licensees to check the quality of network, before the commercial launch of services. However, the present licenses for various services issued by DoT do not mandate any time period for network testing before commercial launch of services by the licensees. Therefore, DoT requested TRAIto provide its recommendations
    on testing of network before commercial launch of services including enrolment of customers for testing purposes before commercial launch, duration of testing period etc. under the terms of clause 11(l)(a) of TRAI Act 1997 as amended.

    In view of the above, Consultation Paper on ‘Network testing before commercial launch of services’ has been released to discuss issues involved, possible solutions and framework to bring clarity on the matter. Written comments on the issues raised in the Consultation, Paper are invited from the stakeholders by 29th May 2017 and counter-comments by 12 June 2017.

    Comments and counter-comments may be sent, preferably in electronic form at advmn@trai.gov.in. For any clarification / information Sanjeev Banzal, Advisor (Networks, Spectrum & Licensing), TRAI, may be contacted at Telephone Number +91-11-23210481.

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  • 99% telecom-related plaints resolved on Twitter

    NEW DELHI: About 99 per cent of the complaints have been resolved through social media since the launch of Twitter Sewa in August last year for registration and resolution of complaints.

    According to data released by the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, a total number of 27,988 complaints had been received as on as on 15 April 2017 and it had resolved 27,965 grievances with a resolution rate of 99.91%.

    Communications Minister Manoj Sinha having twitter account @manojsinhabjp has been calling for daily status reports on resolution of telecom and postal related complaints received through this platform.

    Similarly, India Post has handled 27,000 tweets and resolved them promptly.

    In case of Telecom, consumer complaints relate mainly to telephone bills, broadband connectivity, faulty connections, shifting of landline phones and wi-fi hotspots, while in the case of postal services complaints are mainly in the nature of slow delivery of their articles containing PAN Cards, Roll numbers, parcels, money orders and medicines etc. Issues relating to repairs of Post Office buildings, technical issues with saving banks accounts are also sorted out quickly.

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  • Reliance Jio capex at Rs 18k cr in Q1-18, Retail’s solid performance in FY-17

    BENGALURU: The Mukesh Dhirubhai Ambani headed Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) reported its financial performance for the quarter / year ended 31 March 2017 (Q4-17/FY-17, current quarter/current year). RIL’s digital venture Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited (Jio) has been touted as the largest startup in the world with investments announced to the tune of Rs 1,50,000 crore. The company plans capex at Rs 18,000 crore for Q1-18. The company says that capex investments will drop sharply from Q2-18 onward. This is indeed a huge sum, when one considers the fact that its nearest peer and the largest telecom operator in terms of subscriber base until Jio overtook it, Bharti Airtel Limited (Airtel), had capex of Rs 20,591.9 crore during the entire financial year 2016. It may be noted that Airtel has operations in other geographies besides India, and the capex number mentioned above includes those countries also. RIL claims that Jio contributes to more than 80 percent of data consumption in India.

    Further, RIL plans capex of Rs 2,500 crore for fiscal 2018 for its organized retail segment – Reliance Retail Limited (Retail segment) that had a phenomenal performance during FY-17. Reliance Retail reported revenue of Rs 33,765 crore for fiscal 2017, 60.2 percent more than the Rs 21,075 crore reported in the previous year. Quarter-on-quarter (q-o-q), the segment’s revenue in Q4-17 at Rs 10,332 crore was 18.9 percent more than the Rs 8,688 crore in Q3-17 and year-on-year (y-o-y) it was 83 percent more than the Rs 5,646 crore in Q4-16.

    The Retail segment’s EBIT in FY-17 at Rs 784 crore (2.3 percent EBIT margin) was 55.6 percent more than the Rs 504 crore (2.4 percent EBIT margin) in the previous year. Q4-17 EBIT at Rs 243 crore (2.4 percent EBIT margin) was 5.2 percent more that Rs 231 crore (2.7 percent EBIT margin) and 89.8 percent more y-o-y than Rs 128 crore (2.3 percent EBIT margin).

    The Retail segment’s Business PBIT in FY-17 at Rs 1,203 crore was 40.4 percent more than the Rs 857 crore in FY-16. Business PBIT in Q4-17 at Rs 366 crore was 9.9 percent more q-o-q than Rs 333 crore and 65.6 percent more y-o-y than Rs 221 crore.

    RIL’s Revenue (turnover) increased by 12.3 percent in FY-17 to Rs 3,30,180 crore from Rs 2,93,298 crore in FY-16. The company’s revenue increased 10.3 percent q-o-q to Rs 92,889 crore in Q4-17 as compared to Rs 84,189 crore and increased 45.2 percent y-o-y from Rs 63,954 crore.

    Overall RIL reported record annual consolidated net profit of Rs 29,901 crore in FY-17, up 18.8 percent as compared to the Rs 25,171 crore in FY-16. Consolidated net profit for Q4-17 at Rs 8,046 crore was 6.8 percent higher q-o-q as compared to Rs 7,533 crore and was 12.3 percent higher y-o-y than the Rs 7,167 crore.

    Note: The unit of currency in this report is the Indian rupee – Rs (also conventionally represented by INR). The Indian numbering system or the Vedic numbering system has been used to denote money values. The basic conversion to the international norm would be:
    (a) 100,00,000 = 100 lakh = 10,000,000 = 10 million = 1 crore.
    (b) 10,000 lakh = 100 crore = 1 arab = 1 billion.

  • OpenSignal too finds Airtel better than Jio in 4G speed, latter tops in reach

    MUMBAI: Bharti Airtel is the top performer among the mobile service providers in India in terms of 4G data speed, concluded a report by OpenSignal, a provider of insights into coverage and performance of mobile operators worldwide.

    OpenSignal said its survey was based on 1.3 billion measurements from 93,464 customers on the major wireless networks between December 2016 and February 2017. It stated that Airtel’s average 4G speeds came in at 11.5 Mbps. In second slot was Vodafone at 8.59 Mbps and Idea was the next with speeds of 8.34 Mbps. Jio was fourth, with speeds down to 3.92 Mbps. This clearly showed that Airtel still continues to be the best network of India.

    All the carriers were found to be below the current 17.4 Mbps global average for 4G download speeds.

    However, Jio customers were able to get an 4G signal from its network 91.6 per cent of the time. Idea came in second place at 59.45 per cent, Vodafone was third at 59.05 per cent, and Airtel came in fourth in this category with 54.72 per cent.

    Global internet speed test platform Ookla, based on web and app platforms, had recently shown Airtel as the top 4G high-speed internet provider in India. But, the report was questioned by Jio. Earlier this week, TRAI released a report suggesting Jio was the fastest 4G high-speed internet provider, while Airtel was the third-fastest.

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