Telecom Services

Internet vital for life, shutdowns hurt banking, education: Telcos to govt

Telecom firms urge the govt to limit internet shutdowns, citing their impact on essential services like banking, education, and digital payments, and stress exploring alternatives for law-and-or

Tariff hikes, consolidation may lead to further gains for telecom players

Industry likely to benefit further as full gains from tariff hikes seen over next two quarters; consolidation may lead to further increases

Vi board to consider Rs 2K crore preferential issue to Vodafone Group

The debt-laden telco's board will consider the issue of equity shares and/or convertible securities, Vi said in an exchange filing on Thursday

Killer application for 5G is not single use cases but use places: Ericsson

Tracking global trends for over two decades, ConsumerLab sees GenAI driving the next wave of 5G adoption in India

AI, GenAI next major game changers; will remain impactful: NTT executive

Artificial Intelligence and GenAI are poised to be a major "game changer" for society, a senior official of Japan's NTT has said, adding that the technology, which is attracting big investments and global attention, will prove to be "ubiquitous and impactful" in the coming times. Sean Lawrence, Vice President and head of the IOWN Development Office at NTT, said AI is being used far more widely than what is perceived by many. "We're not even going to know always that we're interacting with AI, but I think it is going to be really the next really big game changer in terms of technology for society," he said. Lawrence said AI will be powerful and ubiquitous. "... AI really is going to be very impactful for society. I think we're already using it a lot more than we realise for many people, but with the kind of maturation of AI, generative AI over the past few years, and you can see where it's going with the amount of investment and focus on it, it is going to become quite ubiquitous,"

Bank guarantee waiver for telecom operators comes with conditions

Additional 3 months' instalment along with annual payments to be paid

US Supreme Court to decide legality of FCC fund for telecom services

Case involves the non-delegation doctrine, a legal concept that embraces the view that Congress cannot delegate the legislative powers given to it under the Constitution to other entities

Trai unlikely to extend November 30 deadline for message traceability norms

With 13,000 businesses already registering with telcos, TRAI believes no disruption would occur

Govt notifies telecom cyber security rules, sets reporting timelines

The government has notified the telecom cyber security rules, that aim to safeguard India's communication networks and services, through a host of measures including specified timelines for telcos to report security incidents and make disclosures. The rules also empower the central government/ its authorised agency to seek traffic data and any other data (other than the content of messages) from a telecom entity for the purpose of ensuring cyber security. Telecom entities would also be required to adopt telecom cyber security policy, that would include security safeguards, risk management approaches, actions, training, network testing, and risk assessment. "The central government, or any agency authorised by the central government, may, for the purposes of protecting and ensuring telecom cyber security, seek from a telecommunication entity, traffic data and any other data, other than the content of messages, in the form and manner as may be specified by the central government on the

Tariff impact: Reliance Jio loses 7.96 mn users in Sep, shows Trai data

BSNL continued to be the largest gainer despite lower growth in subs, adding 0.8 million in September

Bharti Airtel awards 'multibillion' 5G gear extension deal to Nokia

The 'multi year' deal is the second 5G order announced by telecom operators in the last two-months

Vi's Rs 25,000 cr debt-funding delay may threaten financial turnaround

Vodafone Idea owes Rs 70,320 crore in AGR-related dues, a liability that it is struggling to meet, especially after the Supreme Court's dismissal of its petition

Any waiver to be sectoral, not just for Vodafone Idea: Jyotiraditya Scindia

Starlink needs to comply with existing norms, security concerns for satcom licence

Govt panel pulls up BSNL, DoT for slow pace of asset monetisation

Telecom among worst-performing departments in terms of monetisation

Fraud detection system blocks 13.5 mn calls, saves Rs 2,500 cr: Scindia

The technical system deployed by the government is blocking 1.35 crore fraud calls daily and has helped save people's assets worth Rs 2,500 crore till date, Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia has said. The minister, in an interview with PTI, said most of the spam calls originate from servers outside the country, and the systems have been able to block the majority of such fraudulent calls. "In terms of the number of marketing calls you get in your phone, the number of fraud calls that come in, we have put in place a full system to be able to tackle that. Our DoT fraud detection network has saved close to about Rs 2,500 crore of people's assets today, as we speak, through Sanchar Sathi and Chakshu," Scindia said. The systems have led to the disconnection of close to about 2.9 lakh phones and blocked close to about 1.8 million headers that were used for sending out messages, he added. "Along with that, (there) was another vicarious method through which people woul

Telecom issue: NCLAT dismisses petitions, says IBC to prevail over Trai Act

Insolvency tribunal NCLAT has said that the Insolvency & Bankruptcy Code (IBC) would prevail over the provision of the Telecom Service Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Act, as it dismissed two petitions filed by the sectoral regulator in the RCom matter. The National Company Law Appellate Tribunal (NCLAT) dismissed the plea by the telecom regulator TRAI against the classification of the balances of the customers of RCom as operational debt by the resolution professional in the insolvency proceedings of the defunct service provider. NCLAT also dismissed the second petition filed by TRAI, where it sought direction to the resolution professional of RCom for payments of statutory dues amounting to Rs 85.10 lakh. "The submission of the appellant (TRAI) that Act being a special law, would prevail over the provisions of IBC cannot be accepted." "The Supreme Court has already held that Section 238 of the IBC has overriding effect over any other law. Hence, IBC shall prevail over the ..

Nxtra to invest Rs 5,000 cr to double its capacity to 400 MW in three years

In line with its mission to build future-ready data centre infrastructure that is intelligent by design and sustainable, Nxtra has deployed AI in its data centres to drive operational excellence

SAR Televenture to acquire Tikona Infinet for Rs 669 cr in cash, stock deal

Network infrastructure company SAR Televenture on Monday announced that it will acquire internet service provider Tikona Infinet for Rs 669 crore in a cash and stock deal. The two parties have entered into an agreement under which SAR will acquire a 91 per cent stake in Tikona for Rs 669.04 crore in cash and stock deal, a statement said. Tikona Infinet will become a significant subsidiary of SAR Televenture and Tikona shareholders will get SAR Televenture shares. SAR, which is listed on the SME platform of NSE, would be able to expand its business post-deal, especially those in the enterprise sector, the statement said, adding there are operational synergies between the two businesses which will create cost savings. Post deal completion, timelines for which were not revealed, the SAR group will become an integrated telecom services provider with a presence in ISP services, IP1 services, broadband and enterprise services, the statement said. In FY24, the registered sales of the ..

Blocked Vodacom merger derails S African telcos M&A push: Analysts

Dominant companies like Vodacom and MTN say mergers would allow them to leverage existing networks as a springboard to extending and improving coverage

Companies may require fresh licence for providing satcom services in India

Existing licence-holding satcom players unsure whether new authorisation would be automatic