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Vodafone Idea partners with Amdocs for multi-year smart operations services for postpaid segment

Amdocs, a leading provider of software and services to communications and media companies, today announced that Vodafone Idea Ltd. (VIL) has selected Amdocs to consolidate the merged entity’s postpaid operations for retail and enterprise customers across mobile and fixed-line services. As part of the new multi-year agreement, Idea postpaid customers will be migrated to Amdocs Service Monetization Software Suite, which has been supporting Vodafone postpaid customers

BSNL reviews outsourced functions to save cost; faces Rs 800 cr revenue-expense gap

Cash-strapped BSNL has started an exercise to ''streamline'' outsourced functions for saving up to Rs 200 crore annually, and also hopes to rationalise power bills to derive 15 per cent cost savings, a top official said on Tuesday. BSNL Chairman and Managing Director PK Purwar told that the public sector undertaking faces a gap of about Rs 800 crore between its monthly revenue and expenses (operational expenditure and wages), so "challenges will remain". Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has been in the grip of severe liquidity crunch, and recently delayed payment

Employees union seek Centre’s soft loans to revive crisis-affected BSNL

An employees’ union on Monday demanded that the Centre sanction soft loans to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to revive it. Addressing reporters at the Trichy Press Club on Monday, All India Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited Executives’ Association (AIBSNLEA) general secretary S Sivakumar said there was a planned false propaganda going on to defame the image of BSNL. “Our debts are way lower than the debts of our rival private telecommunication service providers. BSNL’s crisis can be fixed by infusing soft loans and revival package

Airtel, Vodafone Idea may have limited participation in 5G spectrum auction

India''s reserve price of USD 70 million per MHz is "expensive", and will force Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel to participate in 5G spectrum auctions in a "limited" way, global rating agency Fitch said on Monday. The comments come weeks after nearly all the telcos had expressed their concerns on the spectrum pricing. "The Telecom Regulatory Authority of Indias (TRAI) 5G spectrum price for

Jio emerges as India's biggest telecom player; Voda Idea user base dips to 320 million

Within three years of starting its commercial operations, Reliance Jio has become the country's largest telecom operator with a subscriber base of 331.3 million, surpassing Vodafone Idea which on Friday reported a decline in its user base to 320 million by June 2019. According to the financial results reported by Reliance Industries last week, its subsidiary Reliance Jio had a user base of 331.3 million by June 2019. Mukesh Ambani-led firm Jio had pipped Bharti Airtel in May to become the second largest

Huawei inks distribution pact with Micromax

Huawei on Tuesday said it has entered into a distribution partnership with homegrown handset maker Micromax, a move that will help the Chinese firm strengthen its presence in the offline retail segment in India. Huawei had started selling its smartphones in India via the online route. Last year, it partnered with Croma to enter the offline retail channels and later inked a similar pact with Poorvika that operates a large chain of stores in southern part of the country.

Jio is biggest mobile tower customer of BSNL, MTNL

Reliance Jio is the biggest mobile tower client for state-owned firms BSNL and MTNL, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informed Parliament on Wednesday. "BSNL and MTNL have rented out 13,051 and 392 mobile tower sites respectively to private telecom service providers," of which Jio has rented 8,307 sites from BSNL and 137 from MTNL, as per the data shared by Prasad in the Lok Sabha. BSNL has rented out 2,761 towers to Airtel, 892 to Vodafone,

Xiaomi becomes youngest company on Fortune Global 500 list for 2019

Chinese smartphone manufacturer Xiaomi has become the youngest company on the Fortune Global 500 list for 2019, ranking 468, with a revenue of $26,443.50 million and a net profit of $2,049.10 million in the previous fiscal. The Beijing-based global technology firm on Monday announced that the company has, for the first time, made the Fortune Global 500 list, nine years after its iteration.

Jio outpaces Bharti Airtel to become No. 2 telco by users at May end: Trai

Reliance Jio has upstaged Bharti Airtel to become the second largest telco in terms of subscribers. According to May data released by the telecom regulator, Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio had nearly 323 million customers compared with Sunil Mittal-led Airtel’s 320.38 million. Kumar Mangalam Birla-led Vodafone Idea, remains the market leader with 387.55 million. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have been losing subscribers at a fast rate, owing mainly to their introduction of the minimum recharge plans.

Govt disburses Rs 20,431 cr for BharatNet project

The government has allocated and disbursed Rs 20,431 crore for the BharatNet project till date to connect all 2.5 lakh village panchayats with high-speed broadband network, Parliament was informed Thursday. "A lump sum of Rs 20,431 crore (Rs 10,286 crore for phase-I and Rs 10,145 crore for phase-II) has been allocated and disbursed from Universal Service Obligation Fund to Bharat Broadband Network Limited under BharatNet project," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

Telcos to install over 57,500 mobile towers in rural areas in FY'20: Prasad

Telecom operators intend to install over 57,500 towers for mobile connectivity in rural areas during the current financial year, Parliament was informed on Wednesday. "There is plan to install 57,559 towers for mobile services in the rural areas during the financial year 2019-20 by telecom service providers," Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said in a written reply in Lok Sabha. To another query, the Minister said as per data available for 2018, 5.54 lakh villages are covered with mobile services,

USOF to help BharatNet under PPP model to bridge digital divide, says FM

The Centre’s ambitious BharatNet program is being speeded up with moves afoot to target internet availability in every panchayat or `village block in the country,’ finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said Friday, in the course of her Budget 2019 speech. The FM said the government would dip into the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) corpus to enable BharatNet to boost rural broadband penetration through the public, private partnership (PPP) model to bridge the digital divide.

Govt asks BSNL to put all capex on hold, stop tenders

The telecom department is learnt to have asked state-owned BSNL to put all tenders and purchase order on hold, as the company is facing financial crisis. The finance department of BSNL issued order in this regard on June 2, directing all its circle heads to take prior approval of corporate officer located in Delhi before floating any new tenders for capital expenditure, according to official sources. "The order issued to circle heads on June 12 says

Reliance raises USD 1.85 billion in long-term loan

Oil-to-telecom conglomerate Reliance Industries (RIL) Tuesday said it has signed pacts with overseas lenders to avail long-term loans of USD 1.85 billion (about Rs 12,900 crore) to finance its capital expenditure. The fund raising comes amid reports of the company planning to infuse as much as Rs 20,000 crore into its telecom unit, Jio, to bolster broadband and e-commerce play ahead of a potential entry into 5G mobile telephony services in future.

DoT alone will not take call on Huawei: Telecom Secy

The department of telecom (DoT) will not decide on the business engagement of Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei in India but a holistic view will be taken by higher authorities in the government, a top official said on Thursday. The DoT has set up a panel to examine issues related to Huawei's participation in the Indian telecom network. "We are expecting a recommendation of the committee. Once the recommendations of the committee come, these will be submitted to the government to take a call. It is not just going to be the decision of the DoT.

CERC allows Power Grid to offer towers to telecos for BTS installation

Power regulator CERC has allowed state-owned transmission utility Power Grid to offer towers to telecom companies for BTS (base trans-receiver station) installation to improve mobile connectivity, especially in remote rural areas. The move will not only address the issue of deficiency of telecom coverage in the country, particularly remote areas, but this segment could also be money spinner for Power Grid. Besides, the power distribution utilities will get a share of income, which would eventually reduce tariff burden on consumers.

Nokia confirms 42 commercial 5G deals across the globe

Nokia today confirms its position with 42 commercial 5G deals (more than any other vendor has announced) in place with operators around the world, 22 with named customers such as T-Mobile, Telia Company and Softbank. Including these agreements, Nokia's 5G deals, trials and demos total over 100 5G customer engagements to date. Since the announcement of the 30th commercial 5G contract at the end of March the company has seen

Telecom minister promises dialogue with industry on outstanding issues, challenges

The communications ministry will hold detailed discussion with the financially stressed telecom industry on challenges faced by them and will work on addressing outstanding issues, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said Monday. The comments assume significance as the mobile industry despite witnessing an explosive growth in voice and data usage has been battling financial stress with eroding profitability and falling revenues, due to heated competition.

TRAI Chief allays concerns on dip in mobile user base; rules out intervention

The recent seen in the mobile subscriber base is not a cause of worry nor does it call for the regulator''s intervention as the fluctuation is on account of multiple factors like minimum recharge plans and will correct in due course, TRAI Chairman R S Sharma said. India''s total wireless subscriber base fell to 1,161.8 million on March 31, 2019, shedding 21.87 million users over the previous month, according to data released by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) recently.

Second National BPO Summit held in Gurugram

The second National BPO Summit was held at Crowne Plaza Hotel, Gurugram yesterday. The conference was convened by CMAI Association of India (CMAI), Telecom Equipment Manufacturers Association of India (TEMA), BPO Council of India with Microsoft as its technical partner and law firm Khaitan & Co as an exclusive knowledge partner for the event. The conference was attended by several stakeholders, including current and former members from Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI),