Govt to auction 5G spectrum for 20 yrs; allows private captive networks

 The government will auction a total of 72097.85 MHz of spectrum with a validity of 20 years by July-end, said an official statement

The Union Cabinet has cleared the auction for 5G airwaves paving the way for auction and commercial launch of next generation telecom services this year. The cabinet in its meeting on Tuesday approved Department of Telecom’s proposal for the auction of 72 GHz of spectrum for a 20-year-period. It also decided to “enable the development and setting up of private captive networks to spur a new wave of innovations in industry 4.0 applications”.

“A total of 72097.85 MHz of spectrum with a validity period of 20 years will be put to auction to be held by the end of July, 2022. The auction will be held for spectrum in various bands (600 MHz, 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz), Mid (3300 MHz) and High (26 GHz) frequency bands,” the government said in a press release on Wednesday….Read More

Reliance Jio pays Rs 30,791 crore to clear bulk of spectrum dues

 The company estimates that the above prepayments will result in interest cost savings of around Rs 1,200 crore

Reliance Jio on Wednesday said it has paid its entire deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquisition prior to March 2021. The company has paid Rs 30,791 crore (including accrued interest) to the Department of Telecom towards prepayment of the entire deferred liabilities pertaining to spectrum acquired in auctions of year 2014, 2015, 2016 and the spectrum acquired in year 2021 through trading of the right to use with Bharti Airtel Limited. These liabilities were due in annual instalments from FY 2022-23 to 2034-35 and carried interest rate between 9.30 per cent to 10 per cent with an average residual period of more than 7 years. The company estimates that the above prepayments will result in interest cost savings of around Rs 1,200 crore annually, at the current interest rates, it said in a statement.

MPs unite against Facebook over ‘political bias’, seek action against execs

The meeting was attended by 13 MPs of the BJP and four from opposition parties

Facebook was subject to tough questioning by Members of Parliament at a meeting of the Standing Committee attached to the Ministry of Information and Technology, on Wednesday. The meeting was attended by 13 MPs of the BJP and four from Opposition parties. Almost all members criticised the US-based social media giant for political bias.

The BJP MPs wanted to know why 2.6 million pages of BJP-related posts were taken down, erased, or tampered with by the company. BJP MP Nishikant Dubey who has aggressively questioned the practices at Facebook, lashed out at the organisation, along with Anil Agarwal (BJP), Sanjay Seth (BJP) and Mahua Moitra (Trinamool Congress).

As proceedings of Parliamentary committees are covered by Parliamentary privilege, very little information was forthcoming from Facebook on how the organisation defended itself. Those who attended the meeting on its behalf were Ajit Mohan, vice-president of the company, and S Purohit, the legal advisor. Facebook said its deposition would be submitted in writing to the MPs.

Unconfirmed reports suggest some MPs also voiced the demand that executives in Facebook India should be stripped of their positions. Another meeting, for which Facebook will be summoned, is on the cards.Two activists of net neutrality — journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta, also the author of The Real Face of Facebook in India, and Nikhil Pahwa, founder of digital news portal Medianama — also addressed the Standing Committee.

Here's why CLSA and Edelweiss have downgraded Reliance Industries' stock

Edelweiss Securities notes that the stock’s primary triggers – deleveraging, asset monetisation and digital momentum – have already played out.

Market News: It has been a dream run for Reliance Industries’ (RIL) stock in calendar year 2020 (CY20). From hitting a low of Rs 868 on March 23, the stock has skyrocketed over 150 per cent to a record high of Rs 2,199 on July 27. The stellar rally came on the back of a series of big-ticket investments by marquee names such as Facebook, Google, Intel Capital, and Qualcomm Ventures into RIL’s digital arm, Jio Platforms. Further, the company’s announcement of becoming a net-debt free entity way before its schedule of March 31, 2021, made Street in awe of RIL, thus firing up the stock price.

However, not everyone looks convinced with the current valuation of the stock and believes that the market is way too optimistic on Mukesh Ambani-controlled RIL, overlooking the risks associated with it. For instance, Edelweiss Securities, in its report dated July 27, notes that the stock’s primary triggers — deleveraging, asset monetisation and digital momentum — have already played out. Also, the current exuberance witnessed in the stock seems redux of euphoria seen earlier, in 1994 (India liberalisation), 2000 (Y2K bug), and 2008 (KG-D6 offshore gas field), which suggests associated risk is high. Edelweiss has downgraded the stock to ‘Hold’ from ‘Buy’ with the target price of Rs 2,105.

Edelweiss Securities notes that its two-stage reverse-discounted cash flow (DCF) analysis of RIL stock shows that the market is baking in high earnings per share (EPS) growth, particularly for Jio Platforms – 35 per cent compound annual growth rate (CAGR) and 31 per cent for Reliance Retail sustaining over the next ten years, which by any measure is a tall ask.

Reliance Jio's 2G-free India drive likely to hit Vodafone Idea hard

About 60% of Vodafone Idea's customer base is in the 2G space

Mukesh Ambani’s plan to make India ‘2G-mukt’ will hit the incumbent operators hard, especially Vodafone Idea given its large base of 2G subscribers. After racking up 100 million users for its 4G-enabled feature phones (JioPhone), Reliance Jio in partnership with Google is eyeing the entry-level smartphone segment. Jio is planning to win over 350 million 2G feature phone users by launching a smartphone ‘at a fraction of the current cost’.

Experts believe that Jio, which dominates the mobile broadband space (4G) with 58 per cent market share, could capture the incumbents’ market share in the feature phone segment with its new offering. While Bharti Airtel has 135 million 2G users, 47 per cent of its total subscriber base of 283 million, Vodafone Idea has 174 million 2G users, about 60 per cent of its total subscriber base of 291 million at the end of the March quarter.

Mayuresh Joshi, head of equity research at William O’Neil India, says: “Vodafone Idea has the highest 2G subscriber base among the top three operators. This coupled with a weak financial situation and inability to commit large capex investment will make it the most susceptible to subscriber loss. The ongoing churn for Vodafone could accelerate if Jio is able to launch a smartphone at a substantially lower cost in partnership with Google.”

Total Reliance: Why investors are betting on Jio Platforms’ future

Over the past six weeks, Jio Platforms has raised a striking $10 billion from global investors

From its Silicon Valley-like campus near Mumbai, Indian billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Jio telecom carrier is emerging as a winner from changes in the way Indian consumers plug into a digital economy made more urgent by the coronavirus pandemic. For Indian shoppers who prefer to order online, it is launching a grocery ordering service with Facebook Inc’s popular WhatsApp messaging. For Bollywood fans who would prefer to avoid a crowded theater, it is readying same-day-release on the Jio platform.

Those plans had been in the making for months, but the pandemic has given them a shot in the arm. India’s 10-week lockdown has also led to a surge in demand for data, boosting Jio’s phone and broadband offerings. And, over the past six weeks, the digital business of Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd, known as Jio Platforms, raised a striking $10 billion from global investors.

The investments, including $5.7 billion from Facebook and money from private equity firms Silver Lake, Vista Equity Partners, General Atlantic and KKR & Co Inc , value Jio Platforms, where Reliance last year announced it was consolidating its digital offerings, at roughly $65 billion (51.6 billion pounds)…Read More

RIL sells another 2.32% in Jio, this time to Vista Equity for Rs 11,367 cr

This is Jio’s third major announcement in three weeks after it previously sold stakes to Facebook and Silver Lake\

Reliance Jio Platforms, part of Mukesh Ambani-controlled Reliance Industries group, has sold a 2.32 per cent stake to US-based private equity firm Vista Equity on a fully diluted basis for Rs 11,637 crore. This is a third major equity deal for Jio Platforms in three weeks — it previously sold a 9.9 per cent stake to Facebook for Rs 43,534 crore, and then 1.5 per cent to Silver Lake for Rs 5,655 crore. The Vista Equity investment has valued Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.91 trillion and an enterprise value of Rs 5.16 trillion. Vista’s investment will make Vista it “the largest investor in Jio Platforms behind Reliance Industries and Facebook”. Jio Platforms has now raised Rs 60,596.37 crore from leading technology investors in less than three weeks.

ALSO READ: Reliance Jio connects with Facebook for $5.7-billion equity deal

Vista is a global investment firm focused on empowering and growing enterprise software, data and technology-enabled companies. It has more than $57 billion in cumulative capital commitments and its global network of companies collectively represents the fifth-largest enterprise software company in the world. Commenting on the deal, Reliance Industries Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said: “I am delighted to welcome Vista, one of the world’s marquee tech investors as a valued partner. Like our other partners, Vista also shares with us the same vision of continuing to grow and transform the Indian digital ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians. ..Read More

After Facebook, Silver Lake to invest Rs 5,656 cr in Reliance Jio Platforms

The deal comes less than two weeks after Facebook made an investment of $5.7 billion to buy a minority stake in Jio Platforms

American private equity firm Silver Lake has invested Rs 5,655.75 crore in Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries’ Jio Platforms. The deal comes less than two weeks after Facebook made an investment of $5.7 billion to buy a minority stake in Jio. The investment by Silver Lake values Jio Platforms at an equity value of Rs 4.9 trillion and an enterprise value of Rs 5.15 trillion, and represents a 12.5% premium on the equity valuation of the Facebook investment announced on April 22, 2020 – said Reliance Industries in a statement.

“I am delighted to welcome Silver Lake as a valued partner in continuing to grow and transform the Indian digital ecosystem for the benefit of all Indians. Silver Lake has an outstanding record of being a valuable partner for leading technology companies globally. Silver Lake is one of the most respected voices in technology and finance. We are excited to leverage insights from their global technology relationships for the Indian Digital Society’s transformation,” said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries.

ALSO READ: Jio-Facebook deal likely to boost adoption of crypto-blockchain in India

Silver Lake is a prominent investor in technology space. The company has over $40 billion in combined assets under management and committed capital. Its investments include Airbnb, Alibaba, Ant Financial, Alphabet’s Verily and Waymo units, Dell Technologies, Twitter and numerous other global technology leaders…

Jio Platforms now more valuable than rest of RIL businesses put together

At Wednesday’s price, RIL’s market capitalisation stood at Rs 8.64 trillion. This means, the other businesses are being valued by the Street at Rs 4.28 trillion

Reliance Industries’ (RIL’s) deal with Facebook to sell 9.99 per cent in Jio Platforms has two messages for the oil to telecom major’s shareholders. The key one is that Jio Platforms is now more valuable than all other businesses of RIL put together, including refining, petrochemicals and retail.

Consider this: Facebook is buying 9.99 per cent stake in Jio Platforms, a 100 per cent subsidiary of RIL, for Rs 43,574 crore. This translates into a market/equity value of Rs 4.36 trillion for Jio Platforms. RIL’s stock gained over 10 per cent after the deal was announced. At Wednesday’s price, RIL’s market capitalisation stood at Rs 8.64 trillion. This means, the other businesses are being valued by the Street at Rs 4.28 trillion.

ALSO READ: Why Facebook is spending billions for a minority stake in Reliance Jio

The other message is that the deal has kick-started the monetisation of digital assets and will help RIL reduce debt, create an incremental revenue stream and could lead to higher valuations for its consumer facing verticals, especially Reliance Retail. The news of falling leverage levels is positive as it came at a time when its core oil and gas vertical was facing major headwinds because of the collapse of crude oil prices. This had raised concerns over the completion of the deal with Aramco, wherein the world’s biggest oil producer was looking at picking up 20 per cent stake in RIL’s chemical and refining business in a deal valued at $15 billion. With the fresh investment from Facebook, leverage concerns have receded…

Why Facebook, Reliance Jio deal is a wake-up call for Amazon, Flipkart

Reliance Jio-Facebook deal is an attempt to marry e-commerce with social media, say analysts.

As Facebook, the world’s largest social media company, invests $5.7 billion for a 9.99 per cent stake in Reliance Jio Platforms, the deal is also seen as a powerful alliance to take on formidable players in e-commerce and payments space such as Amazon, Flipkart and Google. The partnership is expected to help Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance’s e-commerce venture JioMart to take on players such as Amazon and Flipkart in the Indian online commerce market, backed by Facebook. According to industry insiders and analysts, the market opportunities for online commerce in the country is expected to touch $200 billion by 2028 from $30 billion in 2018.

ALSO READ: Facebook-RIL deal to drive investors’ confidence in India’s telecom space

“(Out of the investment made by Facebook) about Rs 15,000 crore would remain with Jio, and this is a huge amount which JioMart can use for building its (e-commerce) network. If they are able to execute this properly on the ground, I think they are going to create massive problems for the likes of Amazon and Flipkart due to the kind of scale that they can achieve,” said Satish Meena, a senior forecast analyst at Forrester Research.

To begin with, Meena said, JioMart is expected to aggressively chase the grocery space, where they can reach a large number of households and work in a way where customers end up buying a lot of services from Reliance itself, related to areas such as mobile connection, television, music and education. “The bigger worry for Amazon and Flipkart now is to reevaluate their business model or logistics as they are not able to fulfil the grocery demand. There is a lot of demand but companies are not ready to deliver.”

Facebook to invest $5.7 bn in RIL’s Jio Platforms to pick up 9.99% stake

Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail and WhatsApp also enter into a commercial partnership agreement

Facebook on Wednesday announced investment of Rs 43,574 crore to pick a 9.9 per cent stake in Reliance Industries Limited’s wholly-owned subsidiary, Jio Platforms, in what is being touted as the largest foreign direct investment for minority stake in India. The company said, “Today we are announcing a $5.7 billion, or INR 43,574 crore, investment in Jio Platforms Limited, part of Reliance Industries Limited, making Facebook its largest minority shareholder.”

“Reliance Industries Limited, Jio Platforms Limited and and Facebook today announced the signing of binding agreements for an investment of Rs 43,574 crore by Facebook into Jio Platforms,” Reliance Industries said in its statement. Concurrent with the investment, Jio Platforms, Reliance Retail Limited and WhatsApp have also entered into a commercial partnership agreement to further accelerate Reliance Retail’s New Commerce business on the JioMart platform using WhatsApp and to support small businesses on WhatsApp.

The companies will work closely to ensure that consumers are able to access the nearest kiranas who can provide products and services to their homes by transacting seamlessly with JioMart using WhatsApp. Commenting on the partnership with Facebook, Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries Ltd, said, “The synergy between Jio and Facebook will help realise Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s ‘Digital India’ Mission with its two ambitious goals — ‘Ease of Living’ and ‘Ease of Doing Business’ – for every single category of Indian people without exception.”

Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani adds $18 billion to his fortune in 2019

In comparison, Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma’s net worth grew $11.3 billion, while Jeff Bezos lost $13.2 billion

It’s been a good year for Asia’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani. The Indian tycoon added almost $17 billion to his wealth as of Dec. 23, the most in Asia, taking his net worth to about $61 billion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. In comparison, Alibaba Group founder Jack Ma’s net worth grew $11.3 billion, while Jeff Bezos lost $13.2 billion. 

The surge in Ambani’s fortune this year was fueled by a 40% jump in the shares of his Reliance Industries Ltd., a conglomerate that’s pivoting more toward consumer offerings than its core oil refining and petrochemicals businesses. The rally in the stock is more than double the gains for India’s benchmark S&P BSE Sensex index during the period.

Investors are piling money on Reliance, betting newer businesses such as telecommunications and retail could soon unlock value. With a goal of building a local e-commerce giant to challenge the likes of Amazon.com Inc. in India, Mukesh Ambani has spent almost $50 billion — mostly debt — on a wireless carrier that’s become India’s No. 1 within three years of debut.

“Mukesh Ambani changed the narrative for Reliance Industries” as a leader not just in oil and gas but also in telecom and retail, and possibly soon in e-commerce as well, said Chakri Lokapriya, chief investment officer at TCG Asset Management, which oversees $3 billion in assets in Mumbai.

Reliance Jio tower assets sold to Canada’s Brookfield for Rs 25,000 crore

Reliance Jio lnfratel has a portfolio of about 130,000 telecom towers that form the backbone of Reliance Jio Infocomm’s network

Reliance Industrial Investments and Holdings (RIIHL), a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Industries (RIL), has entered into binding agreements with Canada’s Brookfield Infrastructure Partners LP and its institutional partners for an investment of Rs 25,215 crore in the telecom tower assets of the RIL.

In a notification to the stock exchanges, RIL noted that Brookfield and its partners would invest Rs 25,215 crore in the units to be issued by the Tower Infrastructure Trust. At the closing of the transaction, the Trust will own 100 per cent of the issued and paid up equity share capital of Reliance Jio lnfratel. Brookfield will buy 100 per cent units issued by the Trust, which, in turn, owns 100 per cent equity of Reliance Jio Infratel, the operating company for Jio’s tower assets.

Reliance Jio lnfratel has a portfolio of about 130,000 telecom towers that form the backbone of Reliance Jio Infocomm’s network. There are plans to build additional towers and the total number of towers is expected to reach approximately 175,000 towers. Jio is an anchor tenant of the tower portfolio under a 30-year Master Services Agreement.

“We are pleased to enter into this long and strategic relationship with Brookfield, which is one of the largest and most respected managers of infrastructure assets globally. We are confident of Brookfield’s abilities to manage this large portfolio of high-quality infrastructure assets and further enhancing value creation opportunities. This transaction demonstrates the belief of global investors in the potential of India’s digital opportunity”, said Mukesh Ambani, chairman and managing director of RIL.

After $13-bn AGR hit, future of India’s tattered telecom hinges on govt aid

Vodafone Idea this month booked a $7 billion quarterly loss, the biggest in Indian corporate history, in large part due to provisions for payments owed

Companies News: The Indian government’s win of a long-contested dispute over telecom fees could end up a Pyrrhic victory, as the billions of dollars in levies now owed are seen as burdens too big to bear for two of the country’s three main carriers. Vodafone Idea Ltd, India’s biggest carrier by user numbers, is widely regarded as most on the ropes, with parent Vodafone Group calling the situation “critical” after the unit was saddled with about $3.9 billion in fresh payments due.

That is the biggest portion of the $13 billion incurred by the sector after India’s Supreme Court last month sided with the government in how spectrum usage and licence fees are calculated. Bharti Airtel, the No 3 provider which must pay roughly $3 billion under the ruling, has also flagged distress, saying the decision casts much doubt on “its ability to continue as a going concern.”

To industry executives and analysts alike, there’s only one solution for the sector which was even before the current crisis debt-ridden and battered by a brutal price war: significant government financial support. Hopes have been raised after the government deferred upcoming spectrum payments for the next two financial years until March 2022. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman also said this month that relief is under consideration although no final call had been made….

Telecom tariff: Jio to follow Airtel, Voda Idea, raise rates in a few weeks

In anticipation of the tariff hike, Reliance Industries’ market cap crossed the Rs 9.5-trillion mark on Tuesday

Reliance Jio, which disrupted the telecom market ever since its commercial launch in 2016, has decided to follow rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in raising mobile phone tariffs. Having kicked off a no holds barred tariff war three years ago, the Mukesh Ambani-owned firm is now stepping back.

According to sources in the know, the tariff hike decision by the telcos is in response to the government wanting the industry to stop the long-drawn price war and set their house in order. In the absence of a tariff hike, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) may have been forced to impose a floor price for the operators. Also, the government has been of the view that any relief measure for the telecom industry should be given only after telcos get out of the price war, that has left the incumbent operators with record losses and high debt, the sources said.

On Tuesday evening, reliance Jio announced it would take measures including “appropriate increase in tariffs’’ in the next few weeks. The move, industry watchers believe, may bring down the pitch of the bitter battle between the incumbents and a new player. Jio’s announcement comes a day after Airtel and Vodafone Idea said they were hiking tariffs from December 1.

In its statement, Jio has asked the government to mandate a ‘2G mukt’ India in the shortest time if the objectives of Digital India mission has have to be achieved. The Jio demand for a 2G-free country is significant as it’s the only operator offering just 4G services pan-India. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea still have a bulk of their customers using 2G….

Mukesh Ambani’s RIL beats BP to make elite club of 6 global energy giants

Reliance has increased 35% this year, compared with BP’s 1.2% gain as it works on cutting high debt levels

Reliance Industries Ltd., run by Asia’s richest man Mukesh Ambani, has eclipsed BP Plc to break into an elite club of energy supermajors.

The Indian conglomerate’s market capitalization was about $133 billion, overtaking the British energy giant’s $132 billion value at the close of trading on Tuesday. Reliance’s shares have increased at three times the pace of India’s benchmark index this year after its billionaire owner in August announced plans to cut the company’s net debt to zero in 18 months through measures including a stake sale in the oil-to-chemicals business to Saudi Aramco. The surge in shares gives Mukesh Ambani a net worth of $56 billion, making him Asia’s richest person, above Alibaba Group’s Jack Ma, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.

Reliance’s market value briefly surpassed BP for the first time at the end of last month, and it has now regained the lead over the British company after its shares ended at a record high in Mumbai. It also narrowing the gap with PetroChina Co., currently Asia’s biggest oil company by market cap.

Reliance has increased 35% this year, compared with BP’s 1.2% gain as it works on cutting high debt levels. Oil companies have struggled because of swings in crude prices and as uncertainty persists over future energy demand.

Reliance, meanwhile, has benefited in a number of ways. It operates the world’s biggest oil-refining complex in western India, which can process low-quality crude and turn it into higher-grade fuels, partly protecting it from volatility in prices...

Bharti Airtel bids for RCom spectrum, Jio seeks deadline extension

It is believed that apart from Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel, there are four players that have made a bid

‘The Bharti group, through two of its companies, on Tuesday made a conditional bid for the spectrum of Reliance Communications (RCom) even as Reliance Jio asked for an extension of the November 12 deadline to make an offer under insolvency proceedings.

The interim resolution professional (RP) had invited prospective companies to make a bid for the company as a going concern with assets and businesses like telecom towers, spectrum, a fibre network, real estate, and an enterprise business, in order to recover debts of more than Rs 33,000 crore of secured creditors.

It is believed that apart from Bharti Airtel and Bharti Infratel, there are four players that have made a bid. They include US-based Varde Partners, a private equity fund that has a joint venture in India with the Aditya Birla group. But the joint venture has not made the bid, sources say. An e-mail query to Varde Partners did not elicit any response.

A Bharti spokesperson, in response to an e-mail query, said: “A conditional bid has been made primarily for the spectrum, which is a precious asset. Bid conditions include that the overall consideration will primarily be by way of the deferred spectrum payable to the government being passed on to us on terms and schedules applicable to such deferred payments”.

Reliance Jio, according to sources, has asked for an extension of the deadline by 10 days. However, it is not clear as to whether the RP, Anish Nanavaty, has granted it, and queries to him did not elicit any response.

AGR payments: Reliance Jio slams peers, questions telecom sector stress

Says incumbents have enough resources, monetisation opportunities pay up

Reliance Jio on Wednesday attacked incumbent operators, saying it disagreed with “the threatening and blackmailing tone” of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) letter. In a letter on Tuesday night, the COAI had written to Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, claiming that the Supreme Court (SC) judgment on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) will lead to a monopoly in the sector and the government’s digitisation programme will suffer.

The Supreme Court (SC) had on October 24 agreed with the Department of Telecom’s (DoT’s) definition of the AGR, asking the telcos to pay dues and interest amounting to Rs 1.33 trillion within three months.

In its letter of protest addressed to COAI Secretary General Rajan Matthew, Reliance Jio said it had taken “strong umbrage at the COAI exploiting the legitimate payout obligations to create alarmist propaganda”. It also alleged “it appears that this sum was used for expanding some other business as per their (incumbents’) commercial decisions”.

A top executive of Jio said: “We do not agree to the contention of the incumbents that they are not in a financial position to pay their legitimate dues.” In its letter, Jio said, “operators have capacity and enough monetisation possibilities to comfortably pay government dues”…

Jio says rivals fraudulently claiming IUC; asks Trai to slap penalties

In a letter to Trai, it alleged the three firms have allotted mobile numbers as customer care or helpline numbers to companies such as Oyo, Justdial, and Videocon D2H

Reliance Jio has accused Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) of fraudulently claiming interconnect usage charge (IUC) from it, for incoming calls on landline numbers.

It asked Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to penalise the three entities and to direct them to refund the money, with interest. In a letter to Trai, it alleged the three firms have allotted mobile numbers as customer care or helpline numbers to companies such as Oyo, Justdial, and Videocon D2H.

A breach, it says, of the IUC regulations Trai issued in 2003. These prescribe separate charges for calls terminating on wireless and wireline numbers — current per minute termination charges are 6p and nil, respectively.

Reliance Jio said in all these cases the mobile number acts as a virtual number for routing customer care and helpline-related calls. “Thus, even when the calling party is dialling the mobile numbers, all such calls are actually terminating on the fixed lines without ever touching the radio access network of the terminating operator,” went the Jio letter.

It said this situation changes the nature and character of a call from ‘mobile to wireline network’ to ‘mobile to mobile network’. In the interconnect agreements signed between Jio and Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL for calls on universal access and toll-free numbers, the originating operator receives 36-52p a minute from the terminating one. “We suspect thousands of such numbers are operational in the market, deployed by them,” Jio said...

Airtel launches digital platform Xstream to take on Reliance JioFiber

This is a strategic move by Airtel to tap into the 18-million broadband-connected homes in the country.

In a bid to take on rival Reliance Jio’s fiber-to-home (FTH) plan JioFiber, Bharti Airtel on Monday launched its digital entertainment platform Airtel Xstream. Its subscribers will be able to access live TV, video, music, news and sports on an over-the-top (OTT) smart stick, internet-enabled set top box, and handheld devices.

This is a strategic move by Airtel to tap into the 18-million Airtel broadband-connected homes in the country. “Nearly 60 per cent of the data consumption in India is entertainment and video. We are targeting that segment,” said Adarsh Nair, chief product officer, Bharti Airtel. He added, “We are working on more such tie-ups in the near future. We want to tap the Indian mobile market.” Airtel Xstream Stick with built-in chromecast is priced at Rs 3,999. Airtel Thanks Platinum and Gold customers will get complimentary access to the content.

Other customers will get free access for the first 30 days, but will need to buy a Rs 999 annual subscription to continue. The offer can also be availed by the existing Airtel DTH customers through an update, by paying Rs 2,249. Airtel Xstream will provide access to Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and other Google Playstore applications.

Airtel, the third-largest mobile service provider, plans to roll out a range of solutions over the next few months to cater to the entertainment needs of every customer segment.Reliance Jio, the largest mobile service provider, had launched a slew of similar offers last month. It will be commercially available from this Thursday. According to a report by Jeffries, Jio is targeting 20 million homes and 16 million enterprises across 1,600 towns and aims to complete the roll-out in 12 months….