FREE SIMS for EVERYONE: How Reliance Jio totally sandbagged Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular via its preview offer

Today, Reliance Digital stores across the country are seeing long queues of customers waiting to get free SIMs with three months of unlimited data and voice calls. “We are taking about half an hour to complete the process for each person,” said an employee at a Digital store in Kerala. “There are customers waiting. Please be […]

How Ravishankar Prasad can resolve the 700 MHz spectrum auction pricing problem

India is getting ready for a digital revolution by auctioning 700 MHz spectrum that has the potential to take high-speed Internet to every village in the country. However, telecom operators — who have to play the role of the enablers — are not popping open the bubbly quite yet. The reason for their misgivings is […]

TCS launches VoLTE solution for telecom companies

Tata Consultancy Services launched a solution to enable Voice over LTE services for virtualized networks. Virtualilized networks refer to software-defined networks that lives on top of a large number actual or hardware networks. Many telecom operators are moving to virtualized networks and away from ‘bare metal’ networks to increase resilience and flexibility of the networks. […]

RCom will continue to hold spectrum edge over Reliance Jio after 800 MHz sale

Anil Ambani-owned Reliance Communications Ltd will continue to hold a spectrum edge over Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio in the 800 MHz band even after it sells chunks of 4G spectrum to the latter, according to sources. The Anil Ambani group said yesterday that it would sell unspecified amounts of 4G-capable 800 MHz spectrum to Reliance […]

Telenor, Vodafone, Tata keen on 700 MHz spectrum; Jio, Bharti, Idea defensive

For years, India’s telecom operators have taken the government repeatedly to task over ‘hoarding’ spectrum, not releasing it on time etc.. However, with recent auctions giving some of them a competitive advantage, many of these operators are now asking the government to postpone the upcoming 700 MHz auctions – slated to be the biggest India will ever see. As part […]

Idea offers 1 GB of free 4G data in 180 cities in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Andhra

Idea Cellular, the country’s third biggest telecom operator and holder of 4G spectrum, is offering 1 GB of 4G data in 190 cities spread over eight states as part of a ‘pre-book’ offer. The scheme is applicable only to those who have Idea phone numbers. Subscribers will have to also change their SIMs to a […]

COLUMN: The True Price of Facebook’s ‘Free Internet’ program

Facebook, the world’s biggest social network, is prompting its users to send a submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to save its ‘Free Basics’ program, urging them to fight the “small, vocal group” of net neutrality activists. “A small, vocal group of critics are lobbying to have Free Basics banned on the basis […]

Idea 4G launch: Registrations started for a list of over 150 cities in MP, Karnataka, Kerala, Haryana

Idea Cellular, holder of the biggest amount of 4G spectrum in the 1800 MHz band, has opened registration for its 4G service in over 150 cities across eight of 12 circles where it plans to launch the service. These eight circles are the four southern states, Punjab & Haryana in the north and Orissa and […]

From January, RCom customers may be able to use Reliance Jio 4G

Customers of Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communications Ltd may be able to use 4G services from next month thanks to an agreement with Reliance Jio, according to sources. Jio, as we have already reported, is scheduled to launch its services by the end of this month and the company’s subscribers will be eligible to use RCom’s […]

Bharti Airtel plans to overtake Reliance Jio’s network in next 3 years

To counter the tremendous threat posed by Reliance Jio, the biggest telecom company in India Bharti Airtel has launched a massive network transformation program called Project Leap. “Aimed at perceptibly improving network quality and delivering the best customer experience, this strategic project will see an investment of Rs. 60,000 crore in the next 3 years,” […]

Reliance Jio to launch 4G in Jan-March; Airtel, Vodafone, Idea may offer discounts – Fitch

Reliance Jio, the telecom arm of Mukesh Ambani-promoted Reliance Industries, is likely to launch its 4G services any time from January to March next year, and will pose a credible challenge to incumbents, driving out weaker operators, Fitch Ratings said. “Jio’s product is likely to gain traction – given the intention to launch an integrated […]

Spectrum Trading Guidelines – Tata, Aircel, RCom to be major beneficiaries in India

The Indian government today implemented perhaps the most awaited reform in the telecom sector in recent years — spectrum trading. Trading will be allowed for all spectrum acquired through auctions or for which ‘market rates’ have been paid. Largely as expected, the norms however have hit MTS — owned by Russia’s Sistema — badly as […]

Reliance Jio, Lenovo to launch Vibe Shot in 10 days, price Rs 20k

Reliance Jio is all set to launch its first 4G handset in India — the photography-oriented Lenovo Vibe Shot — at a price of around 19,999. UPDATE: The phone’s price is Rs 23,000 The launch, expected to take place before Sept 10, will mark the entry of the telecom operator into India’s highly competitive smartphone […]

How Reliance Jio deal can win RCom a ‘free’ 4G network

Reliance Communications is fast emerging as the biggest beneficiary of the approval of spectrum sharing guidelines, though Vodafone and Bharti Airtel — which obtained 3G spectrum earlier this year — could also benefit big time. According to a report in the Economic Times, Reliance Jio and Reliance Communications will take advantage of the new rules […]

MTS says won’t block VoIP calls, offers OpenWeb data plans

With operators like Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular asking the government to be allowed to block certain web applications that compete with their own offerings, data-centric service provider MTS has declared that it will never block any web traffic on its network. Sistema Shyam TeleServices – which runs its services under the MTS brand – […]

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