Economic Times scoops that the AV Birla group, which till last year was not keen on expanding in telecom and was looking to exit Idea is now considering a buyout of Cingular’s stake in the cellular operator. It has floated a proposal under which it could buy out both the Tata group and Cingular’s combined stake of about 67% in Idea.

Singtel, Maxis, Telekom Malaysia, Sistema are the other foreign companies showing interest in Cingular’s stake. Idea was formed as a joint venture between the Tata group, the AV Birla group and AT&T (Cingular) in 2000.

Hutchison Essar has to pay hefty carrier charges to existing NLD operators for routing mobile STD calls originating on its networks. With an NLD licence, it will have the option to lease fibre capacity at a fraction of current charges and also strengthen its tariff margins on long-distance calls.

In the absence of an NLD licence, Hutch-Essar has to rely on other NLDOs. Its variable payout to route mobile STD calls is huge, including access deficit charges (ADC) payable to BSNL, carrier charges payable to the rival NLD carrier and terminating charges payable to the network into which the mobile STD call terminates.

Economic Times reports that the proposed MTNL-BSNL merger has been put on hold due to MTNL’s reservations over becoming a subsidiary of BSNL.

MTNL recently withdrew its Rs. 1500 crore tender for 3G equipment. It also started providing international long distance (ISD) services in Mauritius where it had acquired licence to offer telecom services last year.

Press release talks about Indian activities of two venture capital firms supported by Nokia. BlueRun Ventures is a global venture capital fund focused on early stage companies in the IT, mobile, and consumer electronics markets; Nokia Growth Partners’ mid-to-late stage focus complements that of BlueRun Ventures.

BlueRun Ventures established its office in New Delhi in 2004 when it brought on Sujit Banerjee as a Principal. The fund invested in Pune based Nevis Networks in May of 2004. Nokia Growth Partners recently announced an investment in Bangalore based Sasken in April. In addition, BlueRun Ventures’ India office has significantly increased focus and activity with the addition of Vineet Buch as a Principal, and Vasudev Bhandarkar as a Venture Partner. The two will jointly work with Banerjee to manage BlueRun Ventures’ Indian operations.