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Tag: Sunil Mittal

  • Jio may use US$4.4bn to lay OFC, expand network to stifle competition

    Jio may use US$4.4bn to lay OFC, expand network to stifle competition

    MUMBAI: It’s common knowledge that Reliance Jio, Mukesh Ambani’s telecom venture, is up against incumbent rivals such as Vodafone, Bharti Airtel, and Idea Cellular. Jio closed 2016 with 72.4 million subscribers. Last September, it claimed to be the fastest growing technology operation in the globe after signing up 50 million subs in 83 days.

    Ambani has already invested Rs 1,71,000 crore (approx US$25 billion) into Jio to build India’s first fourth-generation (4G)-only infrastructure to provide high-speed internet. He recently announced that Jio will raise another Rs 30,000 crore through a rights issue, which will be used to expand existing network and lay additional optical fibre cable (OFC). OFC is vital for high-speed internet as it joins one telecom tower, transmitting air waves for wireless connectivity, to the other, via cables.

    Reliance announced plans for a rights issue of convertible preference shares at Jio to raise US$ 4.4 billion. A part of the funds will be used to continue funding its free internet services, which has been a reason for regulatory tussle with other telecom operators.

    Vodafone is fighting a legal case against Jio. Bharti CMD Sunil Mittal said that Jio’s free services started an unfair competition.

    Jio has already acquired 72 million subscribers, and is adding six lakh new ones every day, the company says. Jio’s offers set off a price war. Airtel now is offering Rs 9,000 of free 4G data to new subs and has also cut down its data prices by two-thirds. Idea also is offering several schemes to data users.

    Jio is getting more subscribers with an introductory and then New Year offer of free services until March. The company also claims the most extensive Indian 4G network which will reach soon 90 per cent population.

  • Jio battles incumbents as Airtel launches Rs 1495 free data plan

    Jio battles incumbents as Airtel launches Rs 1495 free data plan

    MUMBAI: The fisticuffs continue in the 4G telecom marketplace. Even as Reliance Jio has been waging a war of press releases, highlighting how many of its subscribers’ calls are being refused by Idea, Airtel and Vodafone, the Sunil Mittal-led telco today too issued a press release through which it is taking a jab at the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco’s free call and data offer.

    Airtel says it has started offering a free data package for Rs 1495 only, and for prepaid customers only. If you are paying for it, then how is it free? Airtel explains that consumers can surf at wild speeds up to the 30GB data and 90-day limit, after which the accelerator needle will drop to 64kbps. And that’s when the free part of surfing will come in – but at super slow speed.

    At the price of Rs 1495 for 30 GB means the data is coming your way cheaper than the Reliance Jio offer of Rs 50 for a GB. The only difference is you are plonking down the money upfront.

    Will Reliance Jio react to this outrageous offer from a rival telco? No one knows, but it definitely has reacted to rival telco Idea on another front: that of call drops. It says that the Aditya Birla group-owned Idea is blocking out calls from Jio customers, refusing them connectivity. Says the Jio press release: “Adequate interconnection capacity so that call failure rate is less than 5 per 1,000 is a license obligation of all telecom operators. As against this, over 750 calls per 1,000 are failing per day between Idea and Jio networks, which translates to four crore calls failing per day. Over 12 crore calls fail daily between Jio and the networks of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea. This is a breach of licence conditions by the incumbent operators and severely impacts customer interests. This is against zero call failures on the Jio network.”

  • Jio battles incumbents as Airtel launches Rs 1495 free data plan

    Jio battles incumbents as Airtel launches Rs 1495 free data plan

    MUMBAI: The fisticuffs continue in the 4G telecom marketplace. Even as Reliance Jio has been waging a war of press releases, highlighting how many of its subscribers’ calls are being refused by Idea, Airtel and Vodafone, the Sunil Mittal-led telco today too issued a press release through which it is taking a jab at the Mukesh Ambani-owned telco’s free call and data offer.

    Airtel says it has started offering a free data package for Rs 1495 only, and for prepaid customers only. If you are paying for it, then how is it free? Airtel explains that consumers can surf at wild speeds up to the 30GB data and 90-day limit, after which the accelerator needle will drop to 64kbps. And that’s when the free part of surfing will come in – but at super slow speed.

    At the price of Rs 1495 for 30 GB means the data is coming your way cheaper than the Reliance Jio offer of Rs 50 for a GB. The only difference is you are plonking down the money upfront.

    Will Reliance Jio react to this outrageous offer from a rival telco? No one knows, but it definitely has reacted to rival telco Idea on another front: that of call drops. It says that the Aditya Birla group-owned Idea is blocking out calls from Jio customers, refusing them connectivity. Says the Jio press release: “Adequate interconnection capacity so that call failure rate is less than 5 per 1,000 is a license obligation of all telecom operators. As against this, over 750 calls per 1,000 are failing per day between Idea and Jio networks, which translates to four crore calls failing per day. Over 12 crore calls fail daily between Jio and the networks of Airtel, Vodafone and Idea. This is a breach of licence conditions by the incumbent operators and severely impacts customer interests. This is against zero call failures on the Jio network.”

  • Mukesh Ambani to invest Rs 250,000 crore for ‘Digital India’

    Mukesh Ambani to invest Rs 250,000 crore for ‘Digital India’

    MUMBAI: The country’s telecom giants have committed to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ambitious plan to connect 2.5 lakh villages across India by 2019 at the launch of ‘Digital India Week’ in New Delhi.

     

    Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani began his address stating how, for the first time, the government, which usually lags behind industries, has taken a step ahead of them by conceiving ‘Digital India’. “Historically, the industry has moved faster than government in India, but with the ‘Digital India’ scheme, the government has overtaken the industry,” he said.

     

    “The youth today aspires for merit based opportunities and progress which ‘Digital India’ will ensure them and we at Reliance Industries commit to achieving that goal with an investment of Rs 250,000 crore,” Ambani announced.

     

    Addressing the infrastructure aspect, Ambani revealed his plans to create an all IP next generation wireless broadband infrastructure across all 29 states in India. Secondly, Reliance Jio will set up a nationwide distribution network that will enable 150,000 small electronic retailers to sell and service smartphones and internet devices.

     

    Not just that, Reliance Jio is in talks with leading device manufacturers to invite them to make smartphones and internet devices at an affordable rate in India. “We will give them assured off-take from our retail system,” said Ambani, who stressed that his company is committed to make necessary investment and strongly partner with central and state government on e-governance, and other services that ‘Digital India’ will provide.

     

    Though Mukesh Ambani set quite high standards for investors in their contribution to ‘Digital India,’ others who followed him didn’t fail to make their promises worth looking forward to.

     

    Take his brother Anil Ambani for example.  While most of the business leaders focused on manufacturing and infrastructure to penetrate in the remote areas, Anil Ambani addressed an important aspect of ‘Digital India’: a paper-free India powered by a gigantic database.

     

    “A crucial prerequisite to Digital India’s success is the availability of unlimited cloud computing power, whose building block is a digital database of the mission,” pointed out Anil Ambani.

     

    Reliance Group is the largest provider of data center facility, with its 11 data center connected by India’s largest terrestrial fiber network and world’s largest submarine cable structure, which Anil Ambani plans to double to 1.2 million sq ft in two years.

     

    The Reliance Group chairman also announced a first of its kind initiative — five fully operational cloud exchange points. “Each of these will give government departments 240 times the computing power currently available to their data centers and their efficiency  will scale up 100 per cent in every 90 days, as ‘Digital India’ will gather momentum,” he said, followed by an investment promise of Rs10,000 crore to the project.

     

    Bharati Airtel too assured a ‘meaningful contribution’. Bharati Enterprises chairman Sunil Bharati Mittal said, “We at Airtel are fully committed to stand by the government’s revolutionary initiative in the digital space. We plan to invest in excess of Rs 100, 000 crore or USD 16 billion in infrastructure in rural and urban regions alike. We also plan to make 4G available to the masses.”

     

    Mittal hailed Modi as a ‘digitally native man’ and the right person to lead India in this digital revolution. He also mentioned about Bharati Enterprises’ active involvement in promoting eHealth in villages and also collaborate with manufacturers to start making devices and services within India.

  • CNBC-TV18, Lufthansa Airlines to launch All For This One Moment

    CNBC-TV18, Lufthansa Airlines to launch All For This One Moment

    MUMBAI: CNBC-TV18, in association with Lufthansa Airlines, is launching a show All For This One Moment. Starting November, the eight-part series will showcase the life and achievements of eight Indian business legends and also give eight unfamiliar young entrepreneurs an opportunity to share their own success stories.

    Set against the backdrop of Lufthansa’s first class terminal, the show will be hosted by CNBC-TV18 executive editor Shereen Bhan.

    The show will see entrepreneurs like NR Narayana Murthy, Rahul Bajaj, Sunil Mittal, Raman Roy, Kumar Mangalam Birla, Kiran Mazumdar Shaw, Tulsi Tanti, Kishore Biyani, Shiv Nadar, KV Kamath, Deepak Parekh, BM Munjal, Subhash Chandra, Ratan Tata, Nandan Nilekani meeting upcoming entrepreneurs.

    TV-18 business media director Ajay Chacko said, “Through this special series we will set to redefine genres by providing the new generation of entrepreneurs with an unprecedented opportunity of meeting the business legends and get a first hand account of their achievements.”

  • NDTV 24×7 to cover ‘Uncommon Ground’ on 27 July

    NDTV 24×7 to cover ‘Uncommon Ground’ on 27 July

    MUMBAI: NDTV 24X7 is launching a series Uncommon Ground. Starting on 27 July, the show will discuss challenges that India faces today.

    Slated to air at 9:30 pm on every Sunday, the eight-part-series will cover fundamental issues that confront India like food, healthcare, employment, energy, land rights, financial inclusion, access to transport and sustainable development.

    The show will guest like Mukesh Ambani and Dr RK Pachauri debating energy solutions for India, Anand Mahindra and Medha Patkar analyzing the complexities of land rights, Sunil Mittal and Aruna Roy debating the right employment model and Rahul Bajaj and Dinesh Mohan analyzing the pros and cons of public versus private transport among others.

    NDTV 24X7 senior editor Manvi Sinha Dhillon says, “Sustainable development means different things to different people and this show attempts to draw some very influential Indians to the table to thrash out crucial development issues. We hope that this show will open up lines of communication that will spur the growth of modern India in a manner that is both rewarding and inclusive.”

  • Bharti likely to enter DTH arena

    Bharti likely to enter DTH arena

    MUMBAI: The direct-to-home (DTH) space is set to get more crowded in India with the telecom majors planning to join the fray in addition to their IPTV gameplan.

    Bharti Group is the latest player to have shown interest to enter an arena which will be occupied by Kalanithi Maran’s Sun Direct and Anil Ambani’s Reliance Group next year along with the existing DTH operators Dish TV, Tata Sky and Doordarshan’s DD Direct Plus.

    “We are looking at DTH and are rolling out IPTV,” Bharti Enterprises Ltd chairman Sunil Mittal tells Indiantelevision.com.

    Bharti, it is reliably learnt, had preliminary discussions with Indian Space Research Orgainsation (ISRO) officials. With several players interested to kick off DTH operations, Isro is finding it a challenge to meet the growing demand for Ku-band transponders.

    Sun, for instance, has had to wait after the unfortunate failure of the GSLV-F02 launch rocket carrying the Insat-4C communication satellite in July this year. Maran had booked seven high-power Ku-band transponders in this satellite, out of which six would have been used for DTH and one for digital satellite news gathering.

    Bharati, however, has not yet applied for a DTH licence. “We are still evaluating. We haven’t yet applied for a licence,” says Mittal.

    Though telecom companies in India have chalked out ambitious triple play plans, they have not yet managed to sort out the technical issues. Last mile access to customer homes has also remained a big hurdle and private telcos, who have built a strong mobile phone business, have even looked at striking alliances with local cable operators. On the content front, there is no regulatory clarity yet for IPTV rights.

    Bharati, for instance, had conducted test trials with UTStarcom as the digital service provider for IPTV, but later made it open for other vendors as well. A leading mobile service provider, Bharti’s (like the other private telcos) progress on fixed telephone connections has been slow. With an eye to increase this base and raise ARPUs (average revenue per user) by delivering video content into consumer homes, the company has taken several steps for IPTV rollout including setting up a digital headend in Gurgaon on the outskirts of Delhi.

    “With IPTV still to kick off, some telcos feel DTH offers good opportunity and synergy,” says a trade analyst.

    Reliance, thus, is launching DTH under the Bluemagic brand and has roped in former Dish TV CEO Sunil Khanna to head the operations.

    The formula now being worked upon by the telcos is obviously to have a DTH footprint as well as IPTV which would give them access to homes for delivering video content.

  • Bhaskar Group director Girish Agarwal wins Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award 2006

    Bhaskar Group director Girish Agarwal wins Ernst & Young Entrepreneur Award 2006

    MUMBAI: Bhaskar Group’s director Girish Agarwal has been honored with the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the year at an award function.

    Agarwal won the award in the category of IT, communications & entertainment, states an official release.

    This year’s finalists epitomise all that the awards stand for: courage, creativity, passion, endurance and vision. They have played a significant role in transforming how India is perceived in the global order and can be truly considered as ‘architects of a new world’.

    The Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year Awards symbolises entrepreneurial excellence in 125 cities in 40 countries. In its eight edition awards had various categories, which includes entrepreneur of the year in manufacturing, communication & entertainment, business transformation, services, manager and start up.

    Ernst & Young’s five member jury was chaired by Bharati Enterprises Sunil Mittal.
    Agarwal has steered the Bhaskar Group to the number one in language papers in India by NRS 2006. The total readership of the Bhaskar group is 2.67 crores and is the largest read publication of the nation. He was instrumental in making inroads into the Gujarat newspaper market when he launched Divya Bhaksar. He also successfully launched DNA to take on the Times of India, Mumbai. Over the years, the group has diversified into media and non media sections.

    Agarwal said, “It is indeed a pleasure to have received this prestigious award. I would like to add that entrepreneurship is an attitude of the Bhaskar Group as a whole. This award is a tribute to the organization. The Bhaskar Group’s success is a team effort.”

    Stanford educated Girish Agarwal, has been credited with building the Bhaskar group into Rs 22,00 crore business conglomerate with interests in newspapers, television, entertainment, printing, textile, edible oils and solvents.

    The Group’s diverse plans emcompass setting up a refinery, ring spinning project, a 250 MW power plant in Chattisgarh, A Theme park at Chandigarh, a world class SEZ at Indore, and a school at Chandanpura, according to the release.