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….

Former Twitter employees charged with spying on users for Saudi Arabia

The lawsuit comes as US-Saudi relations continue to suffer strains over the brutal, Riyadh-sanctioned murder one year ago of Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi

Two former Twitter employees and a third man were charged in San Francisco Federal Court with spying on Twitter users critical of the Saudi royal family, the US Justice Department has announced.

The two Saudi citizens and one US citizen allegedly worked together to unmask the ownership details behind dissident Twitter accounts on behalf of the government in Riyadh and the royal family, the department said on Wednesday.

1 According to a court filing, they were guided by an unnamed Saudi arabia official who worked for someone prosecutors designated “Royal Family Member-1,” which The Washington Post reported was Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman. Those charged were Twitter employees Ali Alzabarah and Ahmad Abouammo, along with Ahmed Almutairi, a marketing official with ties to the royal family.

“The criminal complaint unsealed today alleges that Saudi agents mined Twitter’s internal systems for personal information about known Saudi critics and thousands of other Twitter users,” said US Attorney David Anderson. “US law protects US companies from such an unlawful foreign intrusion. We will not allow US companies or US technology to become tools of foreign repression in violation of US law,” he said in a statement.

No relief in sight for telcos: Govt may not waive $13-billion AGR dues

The government’s stand about the health of the industry mirrors comments made by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., which has said it has a ‘divergent view’ from its rivals

India won’t back down from collecting $13 billion of past dues from debt-laden telecom carriers because the industry is not under stress, a government official with knowledge of the matter said, a move that could deepen Bharti Airtel Ltd. and Vodafone Idea Ltd.’s financial woes.

India expects the carriers to pay up within 90 days as ordered by the Supreme Court last month, the official said, asking not to be identified, as the discussions are private. A panel of top bureaucrats could look at deferred payment plan for some of the dues, the person said.

The government’s stand about the health of the industry mirrors comments made by billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd., which has said it has a “divergent view” from its rivals. High fees, frequent flip-flops and endless tax demands over the years have driven most operators aground. From over 10 operators few years ago, India has just three non-state players left with two of them saddled with a mountain of debt.

Vodafone Group Plc’s Indian venture has $14 billion worth of obligations, while Bharti Airtel is rated junk by Moody’s Investors Service. “All telecom operators have asked for requisite help in reducing” the financial stress, Vodafone Idea said last month. The “extraordinary scenario” being shown is “just a machination to extract relief,” Reliance Jio said in a letter to the minister of communications on Oct. 31.

Bharti Airtel Ltd. shares fell 1.4 per cent as of 9:46 a.m. in Mumbai today. Vodafone Idea Ltd. lost 7.1 per cent while Reliance Industries Ltd. slid 0.8 per cent. The Sensex was down 0.4 per cent…

Mukesh Ambani’s Jio gets RCom into trouble; DoT rejects spectrum deal

Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio Infocomm had agreed to buy spectrum, towers and other wireless infrastructure of his younger brother

BS: In a major blow for Anil Ambani’s Reliance Communication, the department of telecommunication (DoT) on Tuesday refused to give a clearance to RCom-Reliance Jio Infocomm deal. As part of debt reduction efforts, Anil Ambani-led RCom had, in December 2017, signed a Rs 250-billion deal with elder brother Mukesh Ambani‘s Reliance Jio. The deal included the sale of assets mortgaged with different banks to avoid insolvency proceedings. The company expected to raise Rs 180 billion from sales of its wireless assets to RJio and real estate assets to Canada’s Brookfield, and pare some of its Rs 460-billion debt.

Earlier, the apex court had asked RCom to furnish a corporate guarantee of Rs 14 billion within 2 days, following which DoT had to give it a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the RCom-RJio spectrum sale deal within 7 days. All went as planned. RCom furnished the guarantee amount and the DoT agreed to give RCom the green signal.

Big brother’s letter gets Anil into trouble

On Friday, DoT had told the Supreme Court that it was ready to provide the company a NOC for spectrum and asset sale to Jio. However, by Tuesday, the DoT reversed its stand following Jio’s letter wherein it sought assurances from the government that it won’t be held liable for RCom’s past dues related to airwaves, reports Economic Times.

In a letter to the DoT, RJio stated that although RCom has offered a corporate guarantee of Rs 14 billion towards settling its dues, the licence conditions stipulate that it should also give a bank guarantee.Jio’s conditions, mentioned in the letter to the government, are not in accordance with spectrum trading norms, according to which, the buyer is liable for dues that haven’t been recovered from the seller.

Keep Reading: Business Standard 

4G data war: Airtel, Vodafone, Idea counter Reliance Jio with these offers

Telecom industry is witnessing the greatest tariff war of all times

 

Last year, Mukesh Ambani, the Chairman and MD of Reliance Industries Ltd launched Reliance Jio services offering free VoLTE-based voice calls, apps, sms and high-speed 4G data. Soon after, the incumbents like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea faced the heat that led to the greatest tariff war in telecom sector of all times.

Now, when Reliance Jio trial offer giving free services is over and the telecom major is offering ultra-affordable plans and recharge options to provide free voice, sms, apps and high-speed 4G data, the other telecom giants such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea are not leaving any loose ends to fight the competition by offering additional 4G data and free calls in existing postpaid and prepaid plans.

Here are the current plans that the telecom giants are offering:

Reliance Jio

Reliance Jio is currently offering three recharge offers to its prime users.

Rs 149 plan: The subscriber gets 2 GB high-speed 4G data for 28 days. In addition, there are free voice calls, Jio apps and 300 sms bundled with the offer.

Rs 309 offer: The subscriber gets 1 GB high-speed 4G data per day for 28 days. In addition, there are free voice calls, sms and Jio apps bundled with the offer.

Rs 509 offer: The subscriber gets 2 GB high-speed 4G data per day complimentary for 28 days. In addition, there are free voice calls, sms and Jio apps bundled with the offer.

For non-Prime members, the telecom operator is offering the above-mentioned plans at Rs 408 and Rs 608 (Jio Prime membership fee and regular recharge price).

The above-mentioned plans are not available for customers already registered for Jio Summer Surprise offer.

Airtel

Postpaid

Airtel is offering up to 30 GB of additional free data for the next three months. The offer can be availed using 'My Airtel' app by April 30. The offer is valid for users who joined Airtel network before 28 February.

Prepaid

Rs 399 plan: Under this pack, users will get 1 GB data per day only if they have a 4G smartphone and SIM card. The free calls incentive comes with a 3,000 minutes cap for a 70-day period. When the minutes gets exhausted, users will be charged Rs 0.10 a minute. For Airtel-Airtel calls, the limit is 300 minutes per day, but 1,200 minutes is the maximum consumption per week.

Rs 345 plan: From 1 GB data per day, Airtel is now offering 2 GB data for the same amount. Similar to the Rs 399 plan, users get the same free calls benefit with a cap. Where earlier, users were restricted to 500 megabyte (MB) from 12am-6pm and the other 500 MB available for rest of the day, the offer now holds no such limitation.

Rs 244 plan: For 4G smartphone and 4G SIM card users, one can get 1 GB date per day for 70 days under fair usage policy. Although, the offer claims to provide unlimited free STD and local calls, uers get 1,200 minutes on calls made to other networks and 300 minutes of free Airtel to Airtel. Upon full consumption of the free minutes, users will be charged Rs 0.10 per minute.| READ FULL STORY

Jio effect: 5 things that show telecom sector will never be the same again

With Reliance Jio coming out with new deal for users, pain will aggravate and extend to June quarter

 

If the December quarter was bad for the telecom sector, the March quarter could be worse. The full impact of Reliance Jio's (RJio) service will be felt from the March quarter as people had still been trying out the service and the size had been growing to peak levels towards the end of FY16. On every parameter -- realisations, volumes, revenues, margins or debt -- companies are likely to report numbers that are at multi-year lows/peaks. 

Here are five things from the March quarter that stand out:

ARPU is in, all other metrics are out

The launch of free offers and attractive packages has made a number of operational metrics like data revenue per megabyte and average revenue per minute redundant. Harsh Jagnani of ICRA says that given the bundled offers by all telecom operators, the 'primary metric which will be tracked' going ahead will be average revenue per subscriber or ARPU. RJio's bundled offers, allowing users unlimited calls and data usage, is the prime reason for this sea change. 

Revenues take a dive as ARPUs hit 5-year lows

CRISIL Research estimates that March quarter revenues for the four listed players will fall by 10 per cent year-on-year as compared to the 5 per cent year-on-year fall in the December quarter. The reason for the sharp decline is no

t only fall in tariffs, both for data and voice, but also the dip in volumes given a large amount of data usage shifted to RJio. Industry ARPUs have been estimated to fall to five-year lows of around Rs 150. With RJio coming out with a new deal for its users, the pain will aggravate and extend to the June quarter.|  read full story...

IPL 2017 gets bigger with sponsors, key players missing in the 10th edition

Virat Kohli out for the first week; Ashwin, de Cock, Mars, Vijay, Rahul among missing names

 

Amid much fan-frenzy, and competition among sponsors and players, the Indian Premiere League turns 10 this season. And organisers are preparing for a big celebration for the landmark edition, which kicks off on Wednesday. Unlike past editions, the 10th season will host eight different opening ceremonies, one before the first home game of each franchise, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla announced on Monday. 

After Pepsi terminated its contract with IPL, Vivo Electronics bagged the title sponsorship for two years in 2015. Business Standard had earlier reported that Vivo will pay Rs 100 crore a year, against the Rs 80 crore Pepsi was paying annually.

Broadcaster Sony Pictures Networks India (SPN) has signed up 11 sponsors, including Amazon, and it is targeting over Rs 1,200 crore in advertisement revenue from the 10th season.

E-commerce major Amazon, mobile handset maker Vivo and telecom giant Vodafone will be the presenting sponsors, while Ceat, wire-maker Polycab, Yamaha Motorcycles, Vimal Pan Masala, MakeMytrip, Parle Agro's Frooti, Voltas and YES Bank are associate sponsors.

However, the only regret for some fans of the cricket extravaganza this year is going to be the absence of some blockbuster names in the game. Thanks to international cricketing calendar getting busier with every passing year, the players are getting more prone to injuries. Even before the start of the touranment, injuries have already started bothering the franchises as well. Many star players could give this year's IPL a complete or partial miss. 

The biggest among missing names in IPL 2017 is Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) captain Virat Kohli, who is out due to his shoulder injury. Kohli, however, is likely to return on the field by the second week of April. 

K L Rahul, Quinton de Kock, Ravichandran Ashwin, Mitchell Marsh, Murali Vijay will completely miss the tournament due to their respective injuries. While Umesh Yadav and Ravindra Jadeja are likely to regain fitness, they would be missing some of the initial matches. Lasith Malinga is on a national duty and might miss the first few matches, while J P Duminy pulled out of the tournamnet citing personal reasons.

Also Read: 

Is the world's most popular cricket league at crossroads?

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Airtel, Idea, Vodafone in tug-of-war with Jio for customers with big bucks

Jio arrived in India as a disruptive player, bringing free calls, data, scrapping roaming charges

Reliance Jio arrived in India as a disruptive player, bringing free voice calls, data, scrapping roaming charges, etc. Along with flaunting its cheap offers, Jio has been sinisterly targetting users of its rival operators. This, in turn, has compelled other telecom firms to focus on high-paying customers.

Telecom operators' effort to battle with Jio

Recently, responding to Jio's launch of Prime subscription, under which the firm aims to retain its 100 million user base after its free services end on 31 March, Bharti Airtel introduced a Rs 145 and Rs 349 plan. The cheaper plan offers 14 GB data per month with a 500MB cap per day and unlimited calls to Airtel numbers. The Rs 349 plan has unlimited calls to all networks. Vodafone India is now offering 15 GB of data for the first three months at the same price and 6 GB thereafter, according to Livemint. 

Reportedly, a person aware of Airtel’s plans said these plans are meant for customers who reach out to them proactively to move out of the network.

However aggressive the pricing war may be, it is the necessity of the hour, essentially as the telecom industry has lost about 20% of revenue due to Reliance Jio’s free services.

During Bharti Airtel’s earnings call with investors for the quarter ended 31 December, chief executive officer Gopal Vittal said the challenge for the firm, which has a stratified average revenue per user (Arpu) table across the market with different customers at different levels of Arpu, is that there could be some users who will move to a cheaper plan.

“But that is, unfortunately, the competitive dynamic that we are living in today, and that is something that we believe makes a lot of sense for us because that will drive more high-Arpu customers into our network,” Vittal had said.

“In the context of playing an Arpu game, we believe that bundled packs make a lot of sense to lock in Arpu, deliver value,” he added.

Airtel is, in fact, is urging its sales partners to push these plans to customers and its channel partners are being given special commissions on these plans—double the 2.5-3% that they get on other plans. | READ MORE | 

ALSO READ: Telecom industry lost 20% revenue due to Reliance Jio giveaways: Ind-Ra