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Tag: telecom

  • Jio Q4: Profit rises 47.5% to Rs 3,508 crore

    Jio Q4: Profit rises 47.5% to Rs 3,508 crore

    KOLKATA: Reliance Industries Ltd’s (RIL) digital, telecom arm Jio Platforms’ net profit rose 47 per cent year-on-year to Rs 3,508 crore in the fourth quarter (Q4) of FY21. Its net profit stood at Rs 2,379 crore in Q4 of FY20.

    The company posted Rs 18,278 crore revenue from operations, compared to Rs 15,373 in the corresponding quarter of FY20. However, average revenue per user (ARPU) for the telecom business dropped by 8.5 per cent sequentially to Rs 138.20 as against Rs 151 in the trailing quarter.

    “Jio has a highly engaged 426 million customer base and remains committed to enhancing digital experiences not only for our existing customers but, for all individuals, households, and enterprises across the country. With its path defining partnerships over the last couple of years, Jio will continue to strive towards making India a premier digital society,” RIL chairman and managing director

    Mukesh Ambani said.

    Jio’s total customer base stood at 426.2 million at the end of the quarter, adding 15.4 million subscribers in the quarter. Churn reduced during the quarter to 1.26 per cent on the back of focused sales initiatives and reducing Covid impact in parts of the country during the quarter, it added.

    Total data traffic, voice traffic during the quarter grew by 5.2 per cent, 5.9 per cent respectively. 

  • Vi kicks off online gaming tournament for IPL 2021 viewers

    Vi kicks off online gaming tournament for IPL 2021 viewers

    KOLKATA: With India Premier League (IPL) kicking in, the tournament’s associate media sponsor Vi has rolled out an engaging initiative based on the popular game concept Play Along’ i.e. play while you watch the live T20 league. One can play solo or with friends every day during the upcoming matches spread over 52 days, and add some fun and excitement with loads of rewards. Vi is offering its customers an opportunity to participate in the Vi Dekho bhi, Khelo bhi, Jeeto bhi online gaming initiative and win daily prizes as well as a bumper tournament prize, from 9 April to 30 May 2021.

    This announcement comes close on the heels of Vi’s partnership with Disney+ Hotstar, giving the telecom operator’s customers the opportunity to watch the IPL T20 games live from their mobile phones, from anywhere.  

    All Vi customers (pre-paid and postpaid) can register and play the game. It will need one time registration from the Vi App home page. There will be four stages for each game, pre-match, play along, strategic time-out, and power play. There will be daily challenges based on the day’s match. Each participant can earn booster points by inviting friends or recharge / bill payment through the Vi app. There are daily prizes for top scorers of the match, bumper prizes for top scorers of the tournament and mega prizes basis draw of lots for those who have scored a certain minimum points.

    As a separate initiative, Vi has invited customers to play the ‘Vi Fan of the Match’ contest during match breaks and win exciting rewards, including iPhones. ‘Vi Fan of the Match’ can be played on the telco’s official Facebook and Instagram page, and on Twitter during every match break. Participants will have to answer simple questions pertaining to the live match being played. There will be a total of 20 questions for each match. The gifts on offer for those giving the maximum correct answers:

    o   Surprise Vouchers on every ad break.

    o   iPhones to be won at the end of every match – 60 matches, 60 winners, 60 iPhones.

    o   Bumper prize at the end of the season.

    Additionally, the names and photos of each daily winner will be put up on Vi’s social media pages.

  • TRAI extends deadline for submissions in satellite-based connectivity paper

    TRAI extends deadline for submissions in satellite-based connectivity paper

    New Delhi: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has extended the deadline for stakeholders to submit their suggestions on satellite-based connectivity for low-bit rate applications to 23 April.

    The telecom regulator had floated a discussion paper on 12 March seeking views to make satellite communications more affordable in the country. It had also sought feedback on whether licensed national long distance (NLD) operators can be allowed to offer satellite services to connect the new wave of Internet of things (IoT) devices, and if only some frequency bands should be available for such satellite-based IoT connectivity.

    TRAI seeks suggestions to make satellite broadband services affordable

    The low bit-rate applications (below 64 kbits per second) are sensor-based applications used in ATMs, traffic management, vehicle tracking, IoT devices. The written comments were invited from the stakeholders by 9 April and counter comments by 23 April.

    On Friday, TRAI announced that it has extended the deadline for submission of written comments and counter comments up to 23 April and 7 May respectively upon industry request. “No further requests for extension would be considered,” it stated in a press release.

    “With the evolution of satellite communication technologies, new types of applications based on low-bit-rate applications are emerging. Such applications require low cost, low power, and small size terminals that can effectively perform the task of signal transfer with a minimum loss,” TRAI highlighted in its paper, adding that there was also a need for a single-window clearance for all kinds of satellite-based processes.

    Among other issues, it also sought views on whether satellite service licensees should be allowed to obtain bandwidth from foreign satellites for providing IoT connectivity. It also invited suggestions on whether a new licensing framework should be proposed for the provision of satellite-based connectivity for low-bit-rate applications or the existing licensing framework may be suitably amended to include the provisioning of such connectivity.

    “Even though the cost of launching a satellite in India is the lowest globally, yet the licensing formalities, technical criteria, lack of ‘Open Skies Policy’ are significant barriers for the growth of satellite services in the country. The satellite services need to be made affordable for wider acceptability by price-sensitive Indian industry and end-users,” the telecom regulator had noted.

  • Jio rolls out bundled offerings ahead of IPL 2021

    Jio rolls out bundled offerings ahead of IPL 2021

    KOLKATA: As Indian Premier League(IPL) 2021 is around the corner, telecom giant Jio has unveiled new offerings. Four of its prepaid plans include Disney+ Hotstar VIP subscription for a year which will allow users to watch live IPL matches.

    The prepaid plans are priced at Rs 401, Rs 598, Rs 777, Rs 2599 for 28, 56, 84, 365 days respectively. Alongside that, all Jio Postpaid Plus plans come with access to the IPL embedded.

    Jio’s live gaming initiative ‘Jio Cricket Play Along’ will present a new side of entertainment while competing, to its fans. The interactive game is available free to all users (Jio or non-Jio) and provides a chance to win big. Cricket enthusiasts may also express their emotions via emoji stickers on a special chat bar on the game. Trivia fans may also tickle their grey cells with cricket-based quizzes. It can be accessed through MyJio app.

    JioPhone users can join the celebration with the new Jio Cricket app. The app is available for free to all JioPhone users. Users can watch score updates, take part in quizzes and win prizes.

    Jio users can participate in exciting contents and win merchandise daily. Merchandise such as exclusively signed cricket bats and balls, team jerseys, and more will be made available to Jio users.

  • Telecom bundling, availability of smart TVs boosting OTT market in India

    Telecom bundling, availability of smart TVs boosting OTT market in India

    NEW DELHI: The Covid2019 outbreak which brought the entire world to a standstill has helped one sector in India – the OTT industry. Post the pandemic, OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, and Disney+ Hotstar gained massive popularity in the country, and they successfully expanded their userbase in 2020. 

    From bundling plans to cheaper smart televisions, there are various factors that have played a crucial role in elevating the popularity of OTT platforms in India, according to data shared by analytics firm Redseer.

    Telecom bundling helps OTT platforms increase their userbase

    Bundling plans offered by telecom and broadband providers have helped OTT platforms to increase their customer base during the pandemic. 

    Telecom companies like Airtel are offering subscriptions to Hotstar, Netflix, and Prime Video as a part of their bundling plans, while Jio Fibre's broadband bundling offers free Prime Video and Netflix subscriptions. 

    According to the report, unique paid user growth rate was 35 per cent in February 2021 when compared to April 2020. Subscriptions also increased by eight percent during the same period, and the subscription revenue also witnessed a rise of 41 per cent. 

    In an attempt to expand its customer base, Netflix last year launched a new plan priced at Rs 199, where the user can watch their favourite movies and shows on their smartphones. Even though this plan will not work on smart televisions, it has impressed the urban youth in the nation who spend most of the time on mobile screens. 

    The rise in smart TV users helps streamers

    The growing number of smart TV users in India is also contributing to the growth of OTT platforms in India, the Redseer analysis revealed. Unlike previous years where smart TVs were confined to rich homes, the entry of companies like Xiaomi in the Indian market turned things upside down, as they are now offering full HD and 4K smart televisions at an affordable rate. 

    Indians spend 188 billion minutes streaming videos in February

    According to the survey, Indians spent 188 billion minutes on OTT platforms in February, a drop of six percent when compared to the 200 billion OTT minutes Indians spent last April. The drop is primarily due to the country's return to normalcy, and the arrival of television soaps in channels. However, with more releases in the pipeline along with product improvement, the engagement is likely to increase in the coming months. 

    Out of the 188 billion minutes, users spent 69 billion minutes watching daily soaps, followed by movies with 31 billion minutes and then originals produced by the OTT platforms. 

  • Vi partners with Firework to offer vertical video stories to users

    Vi partners with Firework to offer vertical video stories to users

    KOLKATA: Telecom operator Vi has inked a strategic partnership with Firework, the world’s largest story publishing platform based in Silicon Valley.

    This is the first time an Indian telecom operator has offered the Stories format to its users. Globally, almost every platform is adopting the Stories format to enable higher engagement for its audiences. The partnership allows Vi to leverage Firework's massive content repository from global content studios and also get access to unique occupational generated content (OGC) creators who are expert storytellers across a wide genre of subjects.

    “We provide an array of content from multiple OTT players varying across genres like live TV, movies and web series in multiple languages on Vi Movies and TV app. Vi is excited to be the first Telco to partner with Firework for powering the most trending short videos, specially curated for Vi customers. The format is designed to entertain you in ‘30 seconds’ across various categories and interests. Mobiles have become the preferred screens for entertainment and the average time spent on watching short videos is significantly higher than long-form content, demonstrating that the engagement levels provided by short videos remain unparalleled. Through our partnership with Firework, Vi subscribers will get a wide choice of trending stories across genre and languages,” Vi chief marketing officer Avneesh Khosla said.

    Firework president at Mobile Anand Vidyanand said, “Vi’s users can now enjoy their favorite content without the need of downloading another app. With this partnership, Firework is further strengthening its reach across telecom operators, device manufacturers, and app developers. Firework is fully committed to Vi’s vision in bringing the best occupationally generated short-video content to its customers across nearly 40 delightful categories, including multiple Indic languages.”

    While the collaboration enhances Vi’s customer experience and Firework’s reach significantly, it also addresses the need of the creator community with exceptional discoverability in a cluttered content space, pivotal on Firework’s large story ecosystem globally that include top tier traditional publishers, OEMs, network operators, and blogs.

  • Netflix’s Happy New Year: To end 2020 with 4.6 mn India subs

    Netflix’s Happy New Year: To end 2020 with 4.6 mn India subs

    KOLKATA: Despite facing headwinds in other parts of the world, Netflix is sailing full speed ahead in India, suggests a recent report by Media Partner Asia. The global streaming giant has reportedly witnessed 2x growth in operating revenue in FY20, and is likely to end the calendar year with 4.6 million paid subscribers in the country.

    The report attributes this spanking performance to Netflix’s partnership with telecom giant Jio. It also adds that the video-streaming service may touch average revenue per user or ARPU of $5. Moreover, the Indian market may well have contributed to 9 per cent of the company’s global revenue in Q3.

    In late September, Jio announced postpaid plans offering mobile-only Netflix subscription to users of Rs 399 plan and above.  Jio’s Rs 1499 fibre broadband package also gives access to Netflix’s basic plan.

    “We’re also working with local partners like Reliance Jio, India’s largest mobile operator, wherein Q3 we launched a bundle with their mobile and fibre broadband plans. As part of this broad partnership, we’ll integrate Netflix with two of Jio’s set-top boxes. We’ve also partnered with financial institutions in India to make payment processing easier and more seamless for our members, which we expect will have retention benefits. All of these initiatives are important and work in concert with our big investment in local originals to improve the Netflix experience for our members,” the company stated in its Q3 earnings.

    Starting from mobile-only plans to adding Hindi interface, and plans of giving free weekend access to users in India on top, the company is doing its best to land a large slice of the Indian streaming pie.

  • Bharti Airtel revenues jump 22 per cent in Q2

    Bharti Airtel revenues jump 22 per cent in Q2

    NEW DELHI: Telecom operator Bharti Airtel announced its highest ever consolidated quarterly revenue, reporting a 22 per cent jump driven by higher tariffs and a rise in data usage from a Covid2019-fuelled shift to remote working. 

    India revenues for the quarter ended 30 September was at Rs 18,747 crore year on year while mobile revenues grew by 26 per cent. As a result, average revenue per user for the quarter rose to Rs 162, from Rs 128 last year. 

    Consolidated net loss for the quarter came in at Rs 763 crore, compared with a loss of Rs 23,045 crore a year earlier.

    The company has continued to garner a strong share of the 4G net adds in the market. 4G data customers increased by 48.1 per cent to 152.7 million compared to the previous year while traffic increased to 77.3 PB/day vs 48.9 PB/day in the corresponding quarter last year. Consolidated mobile data traffic was at 7,403 PBs in the quarter with a healthy YoY growth of 58.8 per cent. 

    As for engagement parameters, average data usage per data subscriber stood at 16.0 GBs/month; while voice usage was at 1,005 mins per user per month.

    Homes business segment witnessed a revenue growth of 7.3 per cent YoY. The company added over 129,000 customers during the quarter to reach a total base of 2.58 million. It re-calibrated its offering and launched Xstream bundled with content and unlimited internet to accelerate penetration. The company signed on many more LCO partnerships in non-wired cities, extending the model to 48 cities. The company also focused on fast-track network expansion by rolling out fibre home passes and upgrading existing copper network during the quarter.  

    Airtel Business clocked a growth rate of 7.5 per cent YoY, driven by data demand across global business and enterprise and government business. To further leverage growth from “Work from Home”, Airtel BlueJeans, Airtel Secure, Airtel Cloud and Airtel IQ were launched to meet the specific needs of B2B customers.

    Airtel MD & CEO India & South Asia Gopal Vittal said, “Despite being a seasonally weak quarter, we delivered a strong performance with revenue growing at 22 per cent YoY. In the mobile segment, we added over 14 million 4G customers and grew revenues by 26 per cent. Our data consumption grew by 58 per cent YoY which reflects strong  engagement of customers on our network. Other lines of business also continued with steady  growth momentum, with Airtel Business growing 7.5 per cent YoY.”

    Digital TV witnessed a growth of 1.9 per cent YoY on an underlying basis, on the back of strong customer additions of 549,000 during the quarter. Airtel continued to expand its channel portfolio and is also working with educational institutions to broadcast classes to students to ensure education is not disrupted.

    In the digital services segment, Airtel now has 160 million digitally engaged users. On Wynk, it’s now #1 in terms of MAUs (59.3 million in Q2’21) with an addition of 9 million during the quarter; Thanks platform has 81.6 million MAUs in Q2, with an addition of 8 million and Airtel Xstream is at 33.7 million MAUs, addition of 8 million users during the  quarter. 

     Consolidated EBITDA witnessed an increase of 32.6 per cent YoY to Rs 11,848 crore in Q2’21. This led to an improvement in EBITDA margin from 42.3 per cent in Q2’20 to 46.0per cent in Q2’21. Incremental EBITDA margins across businesses remained healthy, with mobile services EBITDA improving from 36.3 per cent in Q2’20 to 42.6 per cent in Q2’21. 

  • TRAI extends deadline to share feedback on broadband connectivity CP

    TRAI extends deadline to share feedback on broadband connectivity CP

    KOLKATA: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has extended the deadline for receiving comments on a consultation paper concerning “Roadmap to promote broadband connectivity and enhanced broadband speed.” The last date for submission of written comments is now 9 November. Counter-comments can be sent in by 23 November.

    The authority released the consultation paper on 20 August. The last dates for receiving written comments and counter comments from stakeholders were fixed as 21 September and 05 October respectively.

    Initially, considering the requests from Industry Associations for extension of time, the last date for submission of written comments was extended to 19 October and for counter-comments to 2 November.

    Read more news on TRAI

    “Now, TRAI has again received request from Industry Association for extension of last date for submission of comments citing various reasons such as curtailed working scenario due to Covid2019 outbreak, need of expert analysis to respond to the issues raised in the consultation paper etc.,” it has stated in the release.

    However, TRAI has clearly mentioned it would not agree to any further delay.

  • Jio partners USP Studios to strengthen kids content library

    Jio partners USP Studios to strengthen kids content library

    KOLKATA: India’s fastest growing telecom company Reliance Jio has partnered with leading kids content creator USP Studios thus strengthening its platform’s offering for kids in India. Through this partnership with USP Studios, Jio users will now have access to eight exciting edutainment apps including Kids First, Kids TV India, Junior Squad Kid Songs, Top Nursery Rhymes, Kids Channel India, Bob The Train, Little Treehouse Rhymes, and Farmees Nursery Rhymes.

    A specialist in creating engaging content for pre-schoolers, USP Studios has been recognized for making learning fun and screen time a positive and enriching time. USP Studios fun learning apps will be available for Jio users in English and other regional languages for free August 2020 onwards.  

    USP Studios has a strong footprint in India that continues to grow. The content creator has a global subscriber base of over 130 million and commands over 2.5 billion views per month. An industry leader, USP Studios continue to produce original content and unique animated character IPs that pre-school kids can relate and connect with. Jio’s partnership with USP Studios will further amplify the accessibility and availability of USP Studios content for kids across India and in the language of their choice.

    On adding content that caters to pre-schoolers, Jio 's Akash Ambani said, “We are extremely excited on this partnership with USP Studios that has helped us expand our offerings for kids and preschoolers. At Jio, we are focused on expanding our content library to suit the needs of our consumers across all ages. USP Studios is a domain expert and a leader in its category. Through this partnership, we are sure that parents will have a new way to keep their kids engaged and make screen time more meaningful with content that is educative and enriching”

    Speaking on expanding presence in the digital ecosystem, USP Studios founder Uday Singh Phoolka said, “Providing kids with content that is differentiated and resourceful is at the heart of what we do at USP Studios. Over the last six years, we have built an edutainment ecosystem consisting of IPs with interesting and engaging characters and channels that have had a lasting and positive impact on toddlers, kids as well as parents. While we have been reaching out to over 130+ million subscribers, we believe it’s time that we further expand this reach to the next 100 million in India and our partnership with Jio will help us achieve this goal.  Jio has been a true gamechanger in how India has been accessing content. It has not only reduced costs, but has opened up new avenues in terms of how consumers access content. We are extremely excited on this partnership with Jio and are certain that both kids and parents across India will benefit from this association.”