Latest Telecom News (15th -19 th July)

1)    DOT opposes Tata Communication move to hike public holding.

·      DOT has objected to Tata Communications (Formerly VSNL) proposal of raising public holding in the company to 25% from 16.85%.

·       The government currently has shareholding of 26%.

·        Tata Comm is in desperate need of funding. So it chose to do it through equity financing by offering more stake to public. Tata Comm, through this exercise planned to raise the authorized capital from 300 crores to 2000 crores. Tata hold 51% stake.

·        And also as per Securities Contracts Regulations act (modified in 2010) requires that all listed private companies to have a minimum of 25% stake with the public before June 2013.

·        The government has objected to any diluting of its shareholding to prevent crass or unwarranted decisions to be taken by the majority of the shareholders.

·      This dispute follows a long standing and unresolved dispute over the 773 acres of surplus land (which was not part the deal when Tata acquired VSNL in 2002) which the government wants to hive off to create a separate company and unlock the real value of the land.

2)   TRAI insists on cancelling licences on missing roll-out deadlines.

·      TRAI has reiterated its early stand to cancel 74 licences for missing the roll-out deadlines.

·         TRAI insisted that out 74, 43 cases didn’t meet the deadlines as in the network was not rolled out. Of the remaining 31, networks were rolled out but were not proper or of poor quality.

·        It also suggested by implementing the above action, it would free up spectrum of about 200 MHz and when this spectrum is auctioned it can fetch the exchequer a handsome amount of Rs 20,000 Crores.

·         TRAI also sought legal opinion, which favored what TRAI has been saying all this time. The Supreme court has stated that it is not enough just to be registered with TEC (Telecom Engineer Center) but also required to commission the service.

·       DOT has been insisting that not 74 but only around 15 licences are bound to be cancelled.

      Licence Terms:

·         If the licencees don’t roll-out the network within 52 weeks after            receiving the licence, they are liable to pay liquidity damages and also risk of cancellation of licences.

·      In the first year of spectrum, the operators are required to cover at least 10% of the district headquarters.

3)  Bharti Airtel faces flak for denying dividend to TCIL.

·       Bharti Hexacom Ltd, a joint venture (JV) in which Airtel has 70% stake and 30% with Telecom Consultants India Ltd (TCIL).

·         The JV has earned a net profit of Rs 700 crores in 2009-10.
       TCIL has invested till date Rs 106 crores in the JV and has yet to receive any returns.

·         A dividend has been denied on the ground that Bharti Hexacom Limited was using all internal generations for expansion of networks to keep pace with the intense competition in the market.

4)    Nokia Strengthens its Life Tools Services.

·        Life Tools Service is a utility service provided by Nokia that provide valuable information to users on agriculture, education and healthcare.

·       Now it is striving to add more services to help and empower more communities.

·         Its implementation so far has been successful with a user base of 1.7 crores. With mobile penetration increasing rapidly especially in rural and semi rural areas, Nokia hopes to cover 70% of population.

·        The Pilot project was conducted in Maharashtra.

·        Services like sowing, crop care, weather forecast etc are provided by Life Tools.

·         Nokia has tied up with IGNOU for its English certificate course, where Nokia would provide study reinforcement module on its Life Tools platform for students enrolling in the course.

·        Nokia Life Tools comes pre-loaded with almost every nokia mobile handset.

·        To avail of the above service, a fee of Rs 30 has to be paid.

5)    BSNL launches VVOIP.

·         Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has launched the first of its kind VOIP services in India.

·         Voice and Video over Internet Protocol uses packet switching technology where data flow is in the form of packets.

·       VVOIP service will cost 40 paise per minute for voice and Rs 2 per minute for video.

·         Main attraction is that the user can make audio, video calls at will on any landline, mobile or IP phone anywhere in the world.

·         Within India, IP to IP phone can be only made within BSNL network.

·        Tariff charges are available on the BSNL website.

6)    Vodafone to launch WEBBOX in India.

·       Webbox , a first of its kind services, transforms the TV into a mini computer. It is an innovative internet-enabled keyboard that turns a regular TV into an internet portal.

·       The device comes with a Opera MiniV5 and an android OS (Platform 2.1) and therefore makes customization easy and it works on 2.5G.

·         Other features include Email, SMS, Radio etc.

·         It is expected to be priced between Rs 5000 and Rs 6500.

7)    MTNL planning to start operations in Africa

·       MTNL is planning to buy 51% stake zimbabwe’s  state owned  operator telone  for an undisclosed amount.

·        It is the sole landline operator in the country and has also been given the license for mobile GSM permit recently in the 4 million subscriber market.

8)     Uninor  to Raise Short-Term Debt Overseas for Daily Operations. The telenor and unitech JV  has taken loan from abroad as after the 2G scam the debt market in India has dried up for mobile operators.

HTC under Scanner

9)  Asia’s second largest Smartphone manufacturer have been found guilty for violating two of the patents of apple by international trade commission. Due to this lawsuit their share have been down since then by 15%. The patents under scanner are about Data detection technology and Data transmission system. Now the US can ban the HTC smartphones which run on googles’ android OS.

10) Airtel to announce its first quarter result in Nairobi which is also the headquarter for the India’s largest mobile operator for African operations.

·         Uninor asks for more spectrum

·       Uninor has aksed telecom ministry to allocate them the additional 1.8 MHZ 2G spectrum on the basis of enhanced subscriber linked criteria

·        Spectrum required for 8 circles

·         Uninor is operational in 13 circles and has a subscriber base of 27 million with a growth rate of approx. 16 lakh per month

·        With this subscriber base Uninor is liable for 6.6 MHZ of spectrum whereas it has only 4.4 MHZ with which it has started its operations in 2008.

11) Mobile banking market to take 4 years to catch on.

KPMG predicts that mobile banking will become globally accepted in about 4 years. Mobile money transactions to reach around $350 billion by 2015.It also predicted that mobile users in India to reach 900 million in 2015 from current 500 million. Smartphone users to increase  to 150 million

12) Huawei eyes 120 million Aircel deal

·         Huawei is in talk with aircel for four circle managed services contract which is valued in excess of $120 million.

·         This 3 year contract is for four circles Maharashtra & Goa, Karnataka, Kerala and Andhra Pradesh.

·         Aircel is a subsidiary of Malaysia’s Maxis group  and operates 2G services in india.