InterneTelecom
Telecom firms were not responsible for the delay in implementation of the regulations, including the DCA, the tribunal observed, adding: "Thus, it is unfair and arbitrary on the part of the respondent to impose financial disincentives on the appellants (telcos) for something which was beyond their control."
“Our focus on speed and quality execution is enabling us to unlock substantial opportunities for growth across our markets and business segments, where demand remains significant, resulting in a further acceleration of constant currency revenue growth in the most recent quarter,” Airtel Africa CEO Sunil Taldar said in an official statement.
Telcos say if 6GHz was delicensed in India-like it has been in the US-tech companies can offer ultra-high-speed internet to potentially over a billion people, without any licence liabilities and costs that operators have to bear, thus upsetting a level playing field and hurting their business model.
Only a few countries in the world have really attempted it,” Robert J Ravi, Chairman, BSNL told ET, adding that such a move by the Centre was essential to ensure robust protection against emerging threats, aligning with the vision of self-reliance and technological sovereignty.
New Delhi: Leading telecom operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) continued their active subscriber losing streak in November, impacted by tariff hikes in July last year and churn in low-paying users, according to brokerages.
Telecom operators, including Jio and Airtel, have introduced voice and SMS-only tariff packs following a directive from Trai.
Direct-to-cell communications via satellites — being pioneered by Elon Musk’s Starlink — is unlikely to disrupt Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel’s mobile broadband business anytime soon as the satcoms technology is still at a nascent stage and will also be hugely dependent on telcos to access the latter’s compatible 4G airwaves for connecting with smartphones, say analysts at JM Financial.
They had reached an agreement with Singapore-based Manipura Digital Infrastructure OPCO Pte Ltd for a combined value of Rs 12.1 crore in November 2023.
TRAI will start, this month, a pilot to onboard paper-based and past permissions given by customers for receiving commercial communications onto its digital distributed ledger technology (DLT) platform, a process that in the long-run would include scrubbing and verifying their current validity and offering opt-outs to those keen on it, Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti said, adding that tighter regulations on curbing spam as well as new consultation examining an authorisation framework for telemarketers can also be expected in coming weeks.
Top telcos and legal experts have flagged concerns over the draft data protection rules, saying clauses around transferring personal data outside India may affect international long distance (ILD) calls and sending text messages overseas or even sending WhatsApp messages to international numbers.
"Smartphone penetration and growing data usage have been the largest contributors to accelerating revenue growth for telecom companies even though subscriber addition has been relatively modest," said Balaji Subramanian, vice president at equity research firm IIFL Securities.
TRAI’s report on the telecom industry’s fiscal second quarter performance also indicated that monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) from wireless services rose 9.60% on-quarter to Rs 172.57.