Monday, October 7

Tag: telecom

Facebook Looking to Acquire 10% Stake in India’s leading Telecom Company
ACQUISITION

Facebook Looking to Acquire 10% Stake in India’s leading Telecom Company

Facebook Inc is in talks to acquire stake India's leading telecom company Reliance Jio, according to a report published in Financial Times. The report said the social media giant was in talks for a 10% stake in Jio, controlled by India's wealthiest man Mukesh Ambani, but the talks were halted due to global travel bans amid the coronavirus outbreak. According to previous reports, Reliance Jio's enterprise value was estimated to be around $60-65 billion in October 2019 following the company's future plan to clear all its debt till March 2021. Reliance Jio had a subscriber market share of 32.1 percent and a revenue market share of 35.4 percent in December 2019 as per previous reports. Recently, Reliance had restructured the digital businesses to bring it under a single entity in ...
After Court Order, Indian Telecom Airtel Pays Rs 10,000 crore dues
INDIA

After Court Order, Indian Telecom Airtel Pays Rs 10,000 crore dues

With the government coming down heavily on telcos after the Supreme Court's rap, Bharti Airtel said it has paid Rs 10,000 crore to the telecom department towards statutory dues. The company said it will make payment of balance amount after self-assessment exercise. "The...amount of Rs 10,000 crore has been paid on behalf of Bharti Airtel, Bharti Hexacom, and Telenor," the Sunil Mittal-led company said in a statement. As much as Rs 9,500 crore has been paid on behalf of Bharti Airtel (including Telenor India which merged with the company), and another Rs 500 crore for Bharti Hexacom. As per the government's assessment, Airtel owes nearly Rs 35,586 crore in statutory dues, including licence fee and spectrum usage charge. After facing the ire of the Supreme Court for putting on...
Reliance Jio Net Profit Surges 62.5%
BUSINESS

Reliance Jio Net Profit Surges 62.5%

India's leading telecom operator Reliance Jio posted a 62.5 percent jump in its standalone net profit at Rs 1,350 crore for the October-December quarter of FY 2019-20. The telecom arm of Reliance Industries, Jio had posted a net profit of Rs 831 crore in the corresponding quarter a year ago. The company recorded an increase of 28.3 per cent in its operating revenue at Rs 13,968 crore as compared to Rs 10,884 crore in the year-ago period. "Jio has continued on its unprecedented growth journey receiving overwhelming customer response for best in class mobile connectivity services. Jio is also determined to redefine the wireline infrastructure, home entertainment and enterprise market in India with its FTTx services which bundle best-in-class connectivity with bouquet of digital cont...
Huawei Exec Arrested in Canada, Can Extradite to US
USA

Huawei Exec Arrested in Canada, Can Extradite to US

Montreal, Jan 12, 2020: Canada Department of Justice said a Huawei executive arrested in Vancouver could be extradited to the United States, because her offense is a crime in both countries, according to documents released Friday. Huawei chief financial officer Meng Wanzhou, who was originally detained on a US warrant in late 2018, faces an extradition hearing in Vancouver that begins on January 20. The United States accuses Meng of lying to banks about violating Iran sanctions. However Meng''s lawyers maintain that she cannot be turned over to the United States, because in order for that to happen, her offense would have to meet a "double criminality" standard -- meaning it is a crime in both countries. Violating US sanctions against Iran, they say, is not a crime in Canada. ...
Security Flaw in Airtel app exposes Customers Data, Fixed Now
News

Security Flaw in Airtel app exposes Customers Data, Fixed Now

An independent cyber security researcher found technical flaws in an application of Bharti Airtel that exposed "sensitive user information" which the company claims to have fixed now. According to the cyber security researcher Ehraz Ahmed the flaw existed in one of the Airtel app that allows "to fetch sensitive user information of any Airtel subscriber.""It revealed information like first and last name, gender, email, date of birth, address, subscription information, device capability information for 4G, 3G & GPRS, network information, activation date, user type (prepaid or postpaid) And current IMEI number," Ahmed said in his blog. The IMEI number is a unique number that can be used to identify the device of the user. "Every user that is on India's Airtel network was at risk ...
Airtel Acquihire Logistics Startup Quikmile
ACQUISITION

Airtel Acquihire Logistics Startup Quikmile

Telecom company Bharti Airtel acquihire Gurgaon based Quikmile, a startup focused on building tech-enabled logistics platforms for India. The company did not disclose the size of the 'acquihire' deal, which typically entails the acquisition of people or teams. "Quikmile's team will now be a part of Airtel X Labs Airtel's digital innovation factory, which focuses on IoT, Digital Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning," Airtel said in a statement. Airtel X Labs team comprises of professionals from India and abroad, the statement said, adding that it is building advanced digital capabilities to serve the emerging needs of Digital India and is rapidly scaling up its teams and scope of work. Quikmile, which started operations in 2018, aims to harness the power of...
Huawei threat to national security, US not going to do business with them: Trump
USA

Huawei threat to national security, US not going to do business with them: Trump

Washington: US President Donald Trump on Saturday said America will not do any business with Chinese tech giant Huawei. The Trump administration believes that giving access to the state-controlled Huawei on 5G would risk America's national security. As such the US is not only denying Huawei access inside the country but also is asking other countries to follow suit. "We're not going to do business with Huawei. We're not doing business with them. And I really made the decision," Trump told reporters at the White House. "It's much simpler not to do any business with Huawei. So, we're not doing business with Huawei. That doesn't mean we won't agree to something if and when we make a trade deal, but we're not going to be doing business with Huawei," he added. US Senator Marco Rubio...
Jio becomes second largest Indian telecom operator, profit zooms 45.6% to 891 crore
INDIA

Jio becomes second largest Indian telecom operator, profit zooms 45.6% to 891 crore

Reliance Jio becomes India's second largest telecom operator in subscriber base posted 45.6 percent rise in net profit for June quarter of 2019-20 to Rs 891 crore, and said the beta trials of its much anticipated 'JioGigaFiber services' is in the final lap. Reliance Jio raced past Bharti Airtel to become the second largest mobile operator, as per May 2019 data released by telecom regulator TRAI. For the first quarter ended June 30, Reliance Jio's operating revenue stood at Rs 11,679 crore, up 44 percent over the year-ago period. Jio's subscriber base stood at 331.3 million as on June 30, 2019. The June quarter net profit at Rs 891 crore was 45.6 percent higher over the year-ago period and 6.1 percent increase when seen sequentially. The company has recorded profit after tax of Rs ...
US Secretary fears Huawei will pass information to Chinese govt
USA

US Secretary fears Huawei will pass information to Chinese govt

The Trump administration is opposing Huawei as it fears the State-controlled telecom giant will pass on information to the Chinese government of which it is an "instrument" and deeply connected with, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has said. Escalating the bruising trade war with China, the US Department of Commerce recently blacklisted Huawei over security concerns and barred American companies from installing its telecom equipment. Earlier in the week, US President Donald Trump said there was a possibility of including the Huawei issue in the ongoing trade negotiations with China. "Huawei is an instrument of the Chinese Government. They are deeply connected," Pompeo said to a Business News in an interview. Responding to a question on the US efforts to oppose Huawei globally...
Indian Telecom company Vodafone-Idea signs multi-million dollar deal with IBM
INDIA

Indian Telecom company Vodafone-Idea signs multi-million dollar deal with IBM

NEW DELHI: India's largest telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd on Friday announced a five-year multi-million-dollar IT outsourcing deal with tech giant IBM. "This engagement will also contribute to Vodafone Idea's merger synergy objectives by reducing its IT related costs," the telecom firm said in a statement. The company did not divulge the size of the deal but some reports pegged it at about $700 million. "The collaboration will provide Vodafone Idea with a hybrid cloud based digital platform to enable more intimate engagement with its over 387 million subscribers (as of 31 December, 2018), enhancing business efficiency, agility and scale plus simplification of its business processes," it said. The new infrastructure platform will remove constraints to the exponential growth ...
Tech Mahindra to acquire K-Vision for USD 1.5 mn to expand 5G business
ACQUISITION

Tech Mahindra to acquire K-Vision for USD 1.5 mn to expand 5G business

New Delhi: IT company Tech Mahindra will acquire Japan-based mobile network solution firm K-Vision for USD 1.5 million in an all-cash deal to support 4G and 5G telecom network roll out in Japan. "The investment committee of the board of directors of the company has approved the proposal to acquire 100 per cent shareholding in M/s K-Vision Co., Ltd through its wholly owned subsidiary ie Mahindra Engineering Services (Europe) Limited," Tech Mahindra said in a note. K-Vision provides network services for mobile communications to telecom operators in Japan. The company earned revenue of USD 4.8 million during 12-month period ended January 31, 2019. "Tech Mahindra through its wholly owned subsidiary...intends to leverage the local presence and expertise of K-Vision to build its ne...
Airtel Reported First Ever Loss in Indian Telecom Sector
BUSINESS

Airtel Reported First Ever Loss in Indian Telecom Sector

India's one of the leading telecom company Bharti Airtel reported first ever loss of Rs 940 crore in the first quarter (June 2018) from its Telecom business. Airtel bleeds to retain market dominance in the face of free voice calls and dirt cheap tariffs from Reliance Jio, Vodaphone & idea. Bharti Airtel's India performance continued to face turbulence from the ongoing tariff war despite high level of investments and increase in usage of services. The average revenue per user on Bharti Airtel's India network declined by around 32 percent to Rs 105 from Rs 154 per network on a year-on-year basis. With the acquisition of Telenor's India business, the mobile subscriber base of Airtel increased by 28 percent to 344.6 million as on June 30, 2018, compared to 280.6 million in the ...