Telcos

Jefferies says sector will maintain 15% CAGR till FY26

Write to government ahead of public consultations later this week

Telecom operators will have to compensate subscribers in case of service outages for more than 24 hours at a district level under the new quality of service rules issued by the sector regulator Trai on Friday. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has also increased the penal amount to Rs 1 lakh from Rs 50,000 for failing to meet each quality benchmark under the new rules. The regulator has introduced a graded penalty system of Rs 1 lakh, Rs 2 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 10 lakh for different scales of rule violations under revised regulations --"The Standards of Quality of Service of Access (Wirelines and Wireless) and Broadband (Wireline and Wireless) Service Regulations, 2024". The new norms supersede three different regulations -- Quality of Service (QoS) for basic and cellular mobile services, broadband services, and broadband wireless services. In case of a network outage in a district, telecom operators will need to provide a rebate on rent for postpaid customers and .

State-owned BSNL's total income increased by about 3 per cent to Rs 21,302 crore in the financial year 2023-24, Parliament was informed on Thursday. Minister of State for Communications Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, shared that BSNL's total income was Rs 20,699 crore in 2022-23. The financial data shared by Sekhar shows that BSNL has received Rs 1.16 lakh crore from the revival package approved by the government between financial year (FY) 2020 and FY24. The state-owned firm received Rs 60,203 crore in FY24. The government has approved three revival packages for BSNL and MTNL, comprising Rs 69,000 crore support in 2019, Rs 1.64 lakh crore in 2022 and Rs 89,000 crore in 2023 for allotment of 4G and 5G spectrum. In a separate reply, Sekhar shared a comparative chart of BSNL's debt position as of March 31, 2024, with other telecom operators. According to the chart, BSNL's debt reduced to Rs 23,297 crore in FY24 from Rs 28,092 crore in FY23 and Rs

The near-simultaneous tariff hikes by all major private operators will push up telcos' average revenue per user (ARPU) to a decadal high of over Rs 225 in FY26, domestic ratings agency Crisil said on Tuesday. Credit profiles of telcos will also improve on the higher profitability and the lower capital expenditure, the agency said. The ARPU -- one of the most keenly tracked metric influencing the financial health of an entity -- will increase 25 per cent in FY26 when compared to FY24, it said. "The industry ARPU should dial up to a decadal high of Rs 225-230 by end of next fiscal compared with Rs 182 last fiscal," its deputy chief ratings officer Manish Gupta said. It can be noted that after the formation of the new government following the general elections, the top three private sector telcos hiked their tariff rates by up to 20 per cent. Gupta said the increased data usage following the introduction of the 5G services will also help the ARPUs. He said customers have also been .

Jyotiraditya Scindia met with satcom, OEM and electronic makers on Monday

The latest telecom tariff hikes announced by telcos can yield additional operating profits of around Rs 20,000 crore for the industry once they are fully absorbed, ICRA said on Friday. With an improved financial metrics, the industry will have the headroom to undertake deleveraging as well as fund capex for the technology upgrade, and network expansion, Ankit Jain, Vice President and Sector Head of Corporate Ratings, ICRA said. The domestic rating agency's view comes after Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel announced they would roll out tariff hikes - in the range of 10-27 per cent - marking the first major telecom tariff increase in the industry in a span of two-and-a-half years. "The latest round of tariff hikes wherein the telcos increased the prepaid tariffs by around 15-20 per cent will provide the traction in the (Average Revenue Per User) ARPU levels and can result in additional operating profits of around Rs 20,000 crore for the industry once these hikes are fully absorbed," ICR

Volume limited as large part of spectrum already auctioned, says Scindia

Telecom operators are assessing the feasibility of CNAP, where both number and caller name will be displayed during incoming calls

The uptick in share price came after Tata Elxsi announced that it has collaborated with Red Hat to boost telecom network monetisation

Telecom industry body COAI renewed its demand for revenue share between telcos and large traffic generator apps like Netflix and Instagram, saying telecom operators would need additional fund to upgrade infrastructure to meet the increasing demand for bandwidth. In a letter to telecom secretary Neeraj Mittal, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said it is imperative that the Indian government takes critical note of the issue facing the telecom sector at this juncture and help create "an apt precedent for the world". The telecom industry body also said that substantial investments are required to be made by telcos for GPU (graphic processing unit)-based high-speed servers to support demand of AI-based applications as well as high definition video streaming by several apps that are also referred as larger traffic generators (LTGs). Large traffic generator apps include YouTube, Facebook, WhatsApp, Netflix, etc. LTGs, it suggested, need to share their revenue with telcos for

The Department of Telecom has asked telecom operators to deactivate USSD-based call forwarding with effect from April 15 and move to alternative methods to re-activate it, an official order said. Mobile subscribers use USSD service just by dialling any active code on their phone screens. The service is often used for checking IMEI numbers and mobile phone balances, among others. The order has been issued to check frauds and online crimes that are operated through mobile phones. In an order dated March 28, the DoT said that it has come to its notice that USSD (Unstructured Supplementary Service Data) based call forwarding facility, most commonly known *401# services for unconditional call forwarding services, is being misused for some unwarranted activities. "In this regard, it has been decided by the competent authority that all licensees shall discontinue the existing USSD-based call forwarding services with effect from April 15, 2024, till further notice. "All existing subscribe

Telecom operators are estimated to have spent an additional Rs 10,000 crore in 2022-23 to support traffic generated by large entertainment and communication apps, according to an estimate of telecom industry body COAI. Cellular Operators Association of India, Director General, SP Kochhar told PTI that the infrastructure support provided by telecom operators to top 4-5 apps large traffic generator apps also corresponds to their revenue growth and in the absence of fair share norms for large apps, the government has lost about Rs 800 crore revenue in 2023 alone. He said that the industry body has submitted a white paper to the Ministry of Finance in this regard in January. "The additional capex required to provide the infrastructure to carry the LTG-related data traffic for the year 2023 alone amounts to around Rs 10,000 crore. Accordingly, the proposed fair share to TSPs on the amount would have resulted in enhancing AGR-related licence fees and USOF levies (combined 8 per cent of A

Some are offering a part of their profits as donations, telcos are beefing up the number of cellular towers to ensure better connectivity, and there are those distributing jalebis and food platters

Telecom service providers gross revenue increased by 5.88 per cent on a year-on-year basis to Rs 80,899 crore during the quarter ended June 2023, sector regulator Trai said on Tuesday. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) Performance Indicator Report, the gross revenue declined 5.22 per cent on a quarterly basis from Rs 85,356 crore registered in March 2023 quarter. The applicable gross revenue (ApGR) and adjusted gross revenue (AGR), on which government share of revenue is calculated, increased by 6.17 per cent and 8.42 per cent to Rs 78,349 crore and Rs 65,354 crore, respectively, according to the report. Gross Revenue (GR) decreased by 5.22 per cent, Applicable Gross Revenue (ApGR) fell by 0.36 per cent and Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR) increased by 1.75 per cent during the quarter ended June 2023. On YoY basis, GR increased by 5.88 per cent, ApGR rose by 6.17 per cent and AGR increased by 8.42 per cent in the quarter ended June 2023, the report said. The

Confirming the move, S P Kochar, director general of COAI, said that the aim is to put the information in public domain for all stakeholders and also for the government

The Supreme Court has set aside a Delhi High Court order of December 2013 and ruled that the licence fees paid by telecom operators should be treated as a capital expense

Say I-T demand for shortfall in taxes for the prior period, along with applicable penalties, is likely

Telecom firms have been asking OTT platforms to share their revenues with the telecom service providers as some apps have begun to provide bandwidth-heavy offerings

CRISIL added that the operating profits of these companies could record a 15 to 17 per cent rise to Rs 1.2 trillion this year from Rs 1.04 trillion in 2021-22