Idea launches 4G in Srinagar, offers 84 GB for Rs 392

Idea Cellular, India’s third largest telco by revenue, launched its 4G services in Srinagar. This is the 26th town in Jammu & Kashmir to get Idea 4G services, which are also present in Jammu, Udhampur, Katra, Samba, Poonch, Rajauri, Kathua, in addition to Srinagar. “Idea 4G SIMs are now available at its company retail store […]

Idea Cellular likely to expand 4G offers this year

Idea Cellular, India’s third biggest telecom player by revenue, is likely to see its 4G data capacity rise to three times the current level over the next nine months, which is likely to push the price of data down further. This could impact Reliance Jio’s ability to stop its discounts and move to ‘full pricing’ […]

Vodafone slashes 4G offer prices after Airtel, Idea reveal explosion of data

Vodafone India renewed efforts to promote its cut-price voice and data offerings in recent days as the latest quarterly numbers from rivals Idea Cellular and Bharti Airtel suggested they had given out bigger discounts in the April-June period than anyone had expected. Earlier this week, Bharti Airtel reported that the total consumption of wireless data […]

WATCH HERE: Mukesh Ambani speech on Reliance Jio at AGM today

Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Jio will make a ‘significant announcement’ about the 4G wireless service provider’s offerings at 11 AM on Friday while delivering his annual speech at its parent’s annual general meeting. A live webcast of Mukesh Ambani’s speech at the AGM, at which he is expected to announce the launch of ultra-cheap […]

With tariff change, Idea Cellular 4G data now cheaper than Reliance Jio

With Reliance Jio raising the price of its 1GB-per-day pack from Rs 309 to Rs 399, Idea Cellular has managed to beat the new operator in this segment, though not by much. Idea Cellular offers 1GB/day for 84 days at Rs 397, making it cheaper by 2 rupees. Though Idea’s scheme is not listed on […]

RELIANCE JIO unveils NEW PLANS valid from today

India’s biggest wireless data provider Reliance Jio unveiled a new set of plans as it continues to migrate its customers towards paid plans. The key difference between the new plans and the previous Dhan Dhana Dhan offer is that the new plans offer double validity for the recharges, while the earlier plan offered triple validity. […]

Reliance Jio tops in user satisfaction, but call drop concerns remain

Reliance Jio users are a happier lot than customers of other services, but call drops and network availability remain key concerns, according to a survey conducted by a market research firm Velocity MR. The firm conducted a study among more than 2000 smartphone users across the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Pune, Ahmedabad […]

Grasim-Adiya Birla Nuvo merger approved, ABFSL listing soon

The Aditya Birla Group said it got the approval of the Company Law Tribunal for the merger of Aditya Birla Nuvo Ltd and Grasim industries Ltd and the listing of Aditya Birla Financial Services Ltd. The approval was obtained from the Ahmedabad bench. “The approved Scheme has been filed with the BSE and the NSE. […]

New technology makes telecom cheaper, but hurts tower companies

A technology that has been around for almost a decade is now getting deployed on a large scale by Indian telecom operators to deploy 2G, 3G and 4G networks using the same base station. This could hit the revenue and growth prospects of telecom tower companies, while reducing the number of antennas mounted on each […]

Bharti Airtel to offer cheap 4G plans for all dongle users – report

With new operator Reliance Jio snapping at its heels, incumbent Bharti Airtel has decided to slash its data prices for everyone with the introduction of new 4G dongle plans, Telecom Talk blog reported quoting unnamed sources. At present, Bharti Airtel does not offer any plan that comes close to what new entrant Reliance Jio has […]

Airtel, Idea and Vodafone close to network sharing deal

Fierce competition from new entrant Reliance Jio is pushing the incumbent telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone India to accelerate negotiations to allow them to use each other’s full networks. As of now, these operators only share ‘passive’ or ‘dead’ infrastructure such as the physical tower and generator sets. Active infrastructure — or […]

Reliance Jio puts more 4G spectrum to use to increase speeds

Reliance Jio, the 4G operator that has taken the market by storm, has deployed the extra spectrum that it bought last year, increasing the total spectrum in use in most markets by 20-25%. In most circles, Jio is operating with about 40-50 MHz of spectrum, and with the new spectrum, this has gone up to […]

Idea Cellular to spend Rs 6,000 cr on VoLTE, expansion of 4G & 3G this year

Idea Cellular, the telecom company controlled by the Aditya Birla group, said it will spend Rs 6,000 cr to expand its 3G and 4G services in the current financial year. The planned investment of Rs 6,000 cr has been “earmarked for expanding broadband coverage (and to) increase wireless data capacity” and for the launch of […]

Why Reliance Jio will keep data prices low for 2 years: Credit Suisse explains

Wireless data prices in India, which crashed from Rs 250 per GB to about Rs 10 per GB after the entry of Reliance Jio, will continue to remain under pressure for at least two more years, said analyst firm Credit Suisse. That is the minimum amount of time that the new entrant will take to […]

Net Neutrality: Vodafone wants right to manipulate Internet videos

Vodafone India said it would like to be given the power to manage the size of videos watched by users on its mobile network and lower it automatically “for overall quality welfare”. Participating in the discussions related to Net Neutrality and the powers to be given to telecom operators in traffic management, the company said it did […]

Telcos Change Tack as Net Neutrality Fight Enters Final Round in India

If you thought the fight over net neutrality was over with the sending of 1 mln emails to the TRAI two years ago, think again. The telecom service providers, who lost out that in the first round, are back. This time, however, their demands are more subtle, and focused on getting specific services exempted from […]

Ortel Communications slashes broadband tariff as Reliance Jio threat looms

With the prospect of the entry of Reliance Jio into the cable and broadband market, Ortel Communications — the largest cable network in Orissa and an emerging player in neighboring states, has slashed its broadband rates. The company has removed all its sub-1 Mbps plans and replaced them with plans having speeds of 1 Mbps […]

Reliance Jio promises new plans in place of Summer Surprise

Reliance Jio has officially withdrawn its Summer Surprise offer on its website and put up a new banner saying that it will be introducing new plans soon. “We are updating our tariff packs and will be soon introducing more exciting offers,” the company says on its website in place of the Summer Surprise details, as […]

Reliance Jio helped India save Rs 18,000 cr, but rivals took the hit

Free services from Reliance Jio, the telecom services arm of Reliance Industries, brought down the amount of money paid by telecom subscribers in India by about Rs 4,400 cr in just the last three months of 2016, an analysis of the sector data revealed. The numbers indicate that the company’s free offers have helped Indians save a […]