Top Stories
Cell phone Radiation within limits: Kapil Sibal
Public health and safety is an exceptionally important subject and the government will ensure that electro-magnetic radiation from mobile phones and towers across the country is within prescribed limits, minister of communications and information technology Kapil Sibal said today.
“Science and technology offer new hazards and solutions that throw up a constant conflict between two public interests. But human health is fundamental and should be placed two steps ahead of scientific solutions,” he said at an international conference organised by The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM).
Sibal said the government had recently set up an inter-ministerial committee which concluded that emissions from base transceiver stations (BTSs) are one-hundredth of prescribed limits, and hence safe for human beings. “We will soon be conducting online checks on BTS stations to ensure that there is no danger emitting from BTS towers.” Read More…
Tata Teleservices statement on SC verdict
Tata Teleservices Limited (TTL) welcomes the Hon’ble Supreme Court’s judgment that spectrum, a scarce national resource, will be allotted through auctions. It has always been our view that spectrum has value and should be paid for.
The aberrations in the policy date back to 2001 and have resulted in wrongful allocations, the beneficiaries of which were not before the Court. If auction covers spectrum wrongfully-allocated since 2001 and is executed in an equitable manner, without bias in favor of selected operators or specific technologies, it should bring in greater transparency and fair-play into the telecom industry.
It is obvious that in the new dispensation mandated by the Supreme Court to be put in place within four months, there has to be a level playing field consistent with the paradigm of transparency.
At the time when NTT Docomo invested in TTL, TTL had been in operations for over 12 years, already had 17 licences, had reached an annual turnover of Rs. 6,000 crores, had 3,000 employees, about 100 offices, 33 million subscribers, 60,000 km of fiber, an NLD business, 38% investments in Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Limited and 100% investments in its tower subsidiary. Read More…
In focus Stories
IIFL recommends ‘Buy’ on Bharti Airtel
IIFL Institutional Equities, a part of the IIFL Group, one of the leading players in the Indian financial services space, recommends ‘‘Add’ on Bharti Airtel
The brokerage said “We trim our Ebitda estimates for FY12, FY13 and FY14 by 3%, 2%, and 0.5% and accordingly our Eps estimates by 14%, 6%, and 9% respectively. Bharti should gain from improved competitive environment in India in FY13–14. The FY14 Eps cut is sharper because we have included one-time excess spectrum charges. We trim our FY14 FCF estimate by 4%.”
According to IIFL report, 3QFY12 PAT disappointed, even after excluding one-time factors including Telemedia (billing platform change), sponsorships for F1 / cricket / marathon, Bangladesh regulatory provisions and Mumbai fire.
The report further stated that the SMS confirmation of VAS and capping of SMSs to 100/day/user were the other factors that weighed on results. But the management confirmed that these have turned around already. Despite tepid growth (5% QoQ) in mobile Ebitda, recent licence cancellations make us optimistic. We believe regulatory transparency would improve.
Africa adjusted Ebit declined 10% QoQ as strikes in Nigeria and elections in DRC weighed on traffic growth (3%). Improvement in revenue market share (RMS) here continues, report added.
IIFL on Telecom: Maintains ‘Buy’ on Bharti, Idea post SC verdict
IIFL Institutional Equities, a part of the IIFL Group, one of the leading players in the Indian financial services space, in a recent report on Telecom said the Supreme Court’s cancellation of 122 2G licences issued post Jan 1, 2008 affects Uninor, Sistema and Idea, which cumulatively have ~4% of industry revenue in these circles.
The oprators will be allowed to operate for four more months, within which period TRAI must recommend and the DoT must decide fresh licensing norms. The government hopes to auction spectrum soon.
However, with the excess spectrum issue remaining controversial, IIFL expects the timelines to be pushed out.
If a technology-agnostic auction is held, these licensees may be outbid by incumbents, the report said.
Spectrum auctions will finally be held and an accelerated end to sub-scale telcos Uninor and Sistema should be witnessed. Also transparency in spectrum pricing will allow DoT/TRAI to move forward with regulation, improving sentiment about the sector, the report said.
IIFL views this as positive for incumbents and maintains 'Buy' on Bharti and Idea.
Results Watch
Vodafone India revenue up 6.3% in Q3
Vodafone Group has reportedly posted a 6.3% growth in its India business revenue to £1.02 billion for the third fiscal quarter.
According to reports, India's service revenue went up 20% driven by growth in the customer base, and 46.4% growth in data revenue. The effective rate per minute increased slightly compared to second quarter following the penetration of recent price rises into the customer base.
Due to rising economic pressure, the group posted a fall of 2.3% in its group revenue of £11.6 billion for the third quarter ended December 31, 2011, reports added.
Kavveri Telecom Q3 net profit jumps 41%
Kavveri Telecom, a leading wireless subsystem manufacturer, which provides world class hardware products and solutions for the telecom, defence and space industry today reported its Consolidated profit & revenue numbers with a 14.30% rise in revenue and a 40.59% jump in the net profit for the quarter ended December 31, 2011 when compared to corresponding period of previous quarter.
While the company saw its stand alone net profit touching Rs. 152.5mn for the third quarter, which is a Rs. 3.19 Cr rise over the corresponding period of last year, its net sales increased by nearly 4.88% to Rs. 85.57 Cr for the same quarter.
The stand alone revenue for the nine months ended on December 31, 2011 also rose by 38.15% from Rs. 1.79bn to Rs. 2.48bn during the corresponding period of the previous year. Net Profit during the nine months period increased significantly by 28.88% from Rs. 26.37 Cr to Rs. 33.99 Cr during the corresponding period in the last fiscal.
Shivakumar Reddy, Managing Director, Kavveri Telecom Products Limited stated that, “We are extremely pleased with our performance. We have recently signed an agreement with the leading mobile operators (9th & 10th operator) for in-building wireless solutions. These agreements will provide a substantial long term revenue source for Kavveri Telecom. We are focused to achieve our goals and look forward for a promising growth in the current fiscal. We also thank our shareholders for their continuous support and expect to receive the same in future.”
Bharti Airtel Q3 cons net profit at Rs10.11bn
Tulip Telecom Q3 net profit at Rs773mn
Domestic News
Tata Comm to buy 5.76% stake in Green Infra: reports
Tata Communications Ltd reportedly plans to buy 5.76% stake in Green Infra Wind Generation Ltd as part of its plans to use power from alternative energy sources.
According to reports, the company plans to buy 10mn units of power, which is about 30% of its annual power requirement in Tamil Nadu, from Green Infra.
Tata Communications has sought Government's approval for executing the deal, added reports.
Batelco to sell S Tel stake for US$175mn
Batelco Group reportedly said that it will sell its 42.7% stake in STel back to the Indian partner for $175 million, after the Supreme Court ordered cancellation of licences issued in January 2008.
Shaikh Mohamed bin Isa Al Khalifa, Group Chief Executive, Batelco was quoted as saying “As Batelco continues to grow and diversify its operations, we remain interested in other investment opportunities that will enable us to participate in the Indian telecom market. We are actively exploring all options in this respect. ”
STel's six licences will be cancelled as a result of the court's order, reports added.
Telenor exploring options, including exit from India
A complete exit from India is one of the options that Telenor is contemplating, along with legal action, after the Supreme Court ordered cancellation of telecom licences issued in early 2008, including 22 held by its Indian joint venture.
"Telenor has been unfairly harmed by the cancellation," said Sigve Brekke, head of the Norwegian company's Asian operations, adding that legal options for the company include seeking a review of the apex court's order.
"If you ask me if am I angry and am I upset, the answer is yes. I am angry and upset, because it is very clear that we are unfairly harmed," Brekke told reporters. "Despite that anger we are not going to roll down and die," he said.
The Supreme Court ordered that all the 122 telecom licences issued under the tenure of former Telecom Minister A. Raja be revoked in four months and asked the telecom regulator TRAI to propose rules for grant of licence and spectrum through an auction.
The companies, whose licences were cancelled, have the option to bid in the auction to regain the licences.
Brekke said that Telenor would decide on bidding for the proposed new spectrum auction after reviewing criteria and the reserve price, but the auction should be restricted only to only those companies who got licences in 2008.
Telenor entered India in 2008 by picking up a majority stake in Unitech Wireless, promoted by Indian real estate company Unitech. Telenor owns 67.25% of the Indian joint venture, with Unitech holding the balance.
The joint venture, which operates under the Uninor brand, has close to 40mn customers, or more than 4% share of the Indian wireless market.
Operators seeking govt. subsidy on monetary basis to deploy LBS infra
“LBS is the next killer app in 3G & mobile broadband ready India. Monetary hurdles are hindering the effective deployment of LBS, as consumers want everything but without any expenditure. In India we follow a mantra ‘High value low price’. We can tackle to the problems if govt. subsidizes us on monetary basis. Government needs to encourage competition rather than regulating it”. Rajan S Mathews, Director General, Cellular Operators Association of India said during LBS India 2012, 2nd International Conference, organised by Bharat Exhibitions at The Lalit hotel today.
Sivarama Krishna, Executive Director, Consulting, PricewaterhouseCoopers discussed about the technology needed for the deployment of LBS. He said that LBS would rely on the technologies like Cell ID, TDOA/AOA, GPS, Fingerprints and Hybrids (AGPS). Describing the usage of LBS in terms of navigation, tracking, information, communication and leisure he affirmed, “Govt. can use LBS and its applications for the security purpose and even at the time of emergency”. Read More…
Piramal Healthcare climbs on doubling stake in Vodafone India
Bharti Airtel net debt at US$13.8bn
Vodafone India appoints Analjit Singh as Chairman
Tulip Telecom CEO Sanjay Jain resigns
…Tulip Telecom unveils largest Data Center in Bengaluru
Monster launches Monster mobile application for BlackBerry smartphones
MTS introduces 'Super Zero' plan
Calls hughes dominant force in satellite networking industry : COMSYS report
Karbonn Mobiles launches KT51 and TnT KT60
GSMA provides further updates on mobile World congress 2012 – international news
Global News
Etisalat chairman to address TEDx Tripoli
Etisalat, a leading telecommunications company with operations in 17 markets across Africa, the Middle East and Asia, will share its ‘Broadband for all’ vision at the innovative TEDx Tripoli event in the Libyan capital next week (13 February, 2012).
It is the first major conference to be held in Libya following the revolution and has attracted a diverse panel of speakers typical of a TEDx event including business leaders, decision makers, entrepreneurs, educationalists and artists.
H.E. Mohammad Omran, Chairman of Etisalat Group, will lead the group’s delegation which also includes Jamal Al Jarwan, the Etisalat Group’s Chief Cluster Officer, and Ahmed bin Ali, Group Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications. Read More…
Port Indigo hires Kall Ramanathan as Country Head
Port Indigo, Inc., a US-based leading mobile solutions company, has hired Kall Ramanathan as the Country Head for its India subsidiary.
Kall Ramanathan has over 25 years of experience in IT services, ISP, Media and Telecom industries, working with leading international brands in the areas of Planning, Structuring & Operating businesses, developing Strategic Business & Market Development activities, and Product Marketing & Sales initiatives.
As Country Head of India Operations, Kall’s primary focus will be to create and establish a strong brand for Port Indigo in India, and to develop partnerships & strategic alliances with best-of-breed mobile companies, carriers, content providers, and other players in the mobile ecosystem.
“We are very excited about having an industry veteran like Kall at the helm of the operations,” Moses Merchant, CEO of Port Indigo, said in announcing the appointment. “The exceptional breadth of his expertise and experience will be essential over the coming months and years as we introduce our products and services in the Indian market.” Read More…