Economic survey 2005-06 on Telecom

Taking stock of progress made on the telecom infrastructure front, through the eyes of the economic survey of 2005-06. The last fiscal was another year of reckoning for the telecom sector. Explosive growth rate in the mobile telephony segment was almost counterbalanced by sedate growth of the fixed line and broadband businesses. Pressure on tariffs [...]

Wireless is Jammed, Please take the Wired route

In order to manage the spectrum bandwidth crunch, DoT is asking non-commercial users such as defence agencies to switch to wired communication and use optical cable. It is not only the non-commercial users but also the private cellular operators who are hit by the spectrum crunch. DoT is asking them to exploit optical fibre resources [...]

Telekom Malaysia to buy 49% in Spice

ET reports that Telekom Malaysia will take a 49% stake in Spice Telecom, with BK Modi retaining his 51% controlling interest. Telekom Malaysia will be buying out Ashmore Investments and Deutsche Bank’s stake in the company, who had picked up the strategic stake held by Singapore-based Distacomm. With the company’s net valuation pegged at roughly [...]

Major organisational restructuring in Bharti

According to a report in ET, Bharti Tele-Ventures is set to merge its mobile and fixed line businesses. This is in line with Bharti’s One Airtel initiative, which had earlier seen the company merge the distribution arms of both companies. “Due to the merger of Infotel and mobility, certain adjustments, restructuring and redesignations are bound [...]

Tata gets going with Uncle Pai comics

Coruscant Tec has announced the availability of Uncle Pai’s comics on Tata Indicom in English and Hindi versions. The first application in the series will contain delightful stories of two boys, Chhotu and Bittu, who use their wits to tame a fierce tiger in the tales “Chhotu Tames a Tiger

WestBridge picks up stake in Mauj

Business Standard reports that mobile content aggregator Mauj Telecom has received an investment from leading venture capitalist WestBridge Capital Partners. Even though the exact investment size could not be ascertained, it is slated as one of the major deals in the domestic mobile value added services (VAS) market. WestBridge Capital Partners is a leading venture [...]

Reliance Info slashes handset costs by 40%

In a bid to further lower the entry-level for consumers, Reliance Infocomm has cut the costs of handsets by a whopping 40% for black and white instruments and 15% for the colour ones. The company is offering its base model – an LG 2340 black and white handset – for Rs 1,500, a 40-per cent [...]

Reliance Comm Ventures reports Rs 310 crores profit

Giving a facelift to his telecom venture ahead of its March listing, Reliance Communication Ventures Ltd has kicked off a series of measures, writing off crores of rupees worth bad debts and announcing a whopping Rs 310 crore as net profit for the quarter ending December 2005. RCVL is the holding company of Anil Dhirubhai [...]

Idea wins GSMA Award

Idea Cellular has won the GSM Association award in the “Best Billing or Customer Care Solution” category at the recently concluded 3GSM World Congress in Barcelona, Spain. The award was presented for its “Bill Flash” service. “Bill Flash

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