Tag: airtel

5G Telecom Services to Be Launched on October 1 by PM Narendra Modi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Saturday launch the 5G telephony services, ushering in an era of ultra high-speed internet on mobile phones.

According to an official release, 5G will be launched by the Prime Minister in select cities on Saturday and it will progressively cover the entire country over the next couple of years.

The cumulative economic impact of 5G on India is estimated to reach $450 billion (nearly Rs. 36,61,200 crore) by 2035.

Capable of supporting ultra-high-speed internet, the fifth generation or 5G service is expected to unleash new economic opportunities and societal benefits, serving as a transformational force for Indian society.

The three major telecom operators of the country will demonstrate one use case each in front of the Prime Minister to show the potential of 5G technology in India.

Billionaire Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Jio will connect a teacher from a school in Mumbai with students in three different locations in Maharashtra, Gujarat and Odisha.

This, according to official sources, will demonstrate how 5G will facilitate education by bringing teachers closer to students, obliviating the physical distance between them. It will demonstrate the power of Augmented Reality (AR) on screen and how that is being used to teach children across the country, remotely, without the need of an AR device.

In the Airtel demo, a girl from Uttar Pradesh will witness a lively and immersive education experience to learn about the solar system with the help of virtual reality and augmented reality. The girl will share her experience of learning with the Prime Minister by appearing on the dias through a hologram.

The Vodafone Idea test case will demonstrate the safety of workers in an under-construction tunnel of Delhi Metro through the creation of a ‘digital twin’ of the tunnel on the dias. The digital twin will help give safety alerts to workers in real-time from a remote location.

Modi will take a live demo from the dias to monitor the work in real-time through utilising VR and artificial intelligence.

“Prime Minister, Narendra Modi will launch 5G services in India on October 1, 2022, and also inaugurate the 6th Edition of India Mobile Congress 2022 to be held from October 1-4, 2022, at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi,” the release added.

The various use cases that will be demonstrated in front of the Prime Minister in the exhibition include precision drone-based farming, high-security routers and AI-based cyber threat detection platforms, automated guided vehicles, smart ambulances, augmented reality/virtual reality /mix reality in education and skill development, sewage monitoring system, smart-agri programme and health diagnostics, among others.

5G offers speed multiple times faster than 4G, supports lag-free connectivity, and can enable billions of connected devices to share data in real-time.

It will help in providing seamless coverage, high data rate, low latency, and highly reliable communications. Also, it will increase energy efficiency, spectrum efficiency and network efficiency.

5G technology will help in connecting billions of Internet of Things devices, allow higher quality video services with mobility at high speed, delivery of critical services such as telesurgery and autonomous cars, among others.

It will help in real-time monitoring of disasters, precision agriculture, minimising the role of humans in dangerous industrial operations such as in deep mines, offshore activities etc. Unlike existing mobile communication networks, 5G networks will allow tailoring of requirements for each of these different use cases within the same network.

Besides powering ultra-low latency connections, which allow downloading full-length high-quality video or movie to a mobile device in a matter of seconds (even in crowded areas), 5G can enable solutions such as e-health, connected vehicles, more-immersive augmented reality and metaverse experiences, life-saving use cases, and advanced mobile cloud gaming, among others.

“5G can unleash new economic opportunities and societal benefits giving it the potential for being a transformational force for Indian society. It will help the country leapfrog the traditional barriers to development, spur innovations by startups and business enterprises as well as advance the ‘Digital India’ vision,” the official release said.

The launch of 5G services in India, the world’s second-biggest smartphone market after China, follows years of intense preparation.

India’s biggest ever auction of telecom spectrum held recently had received a record Rs. 1.5 lakh crore of bids, with Mukesh Ambani’s Jio cornering nearly half of all the airwaves sold with a Rs. 88,078-crore bid.

Telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Airtel made a successful bid of Rs. 43,084 crore, while Vodafone Idea bought spectrum for Rs. 18,799 crore.

Gautam Adani’s group, whose entry in the auction was billed by some as another flashpoint in the rivalry with Ambani, paid Rs. 212 crore for 400 MHz. Adani group bought spectrum in the 26 GHz band, which is suitable for setting up a private network for end-to-end communication.

The auction aggregated the demand for a robust 5G ecosystem that can cater to its use cases involving IoT (Internet of Things), M2M (Machine-to-Machine communication), AI (Artificial Intelligence), Edge Computing, and robotics.

The Telecom Department has amended Right of Way (RoW) Rules in August 2022, wherein the charges for permissions to lay cables and set up towers have been made reasonable and a ceiling has been fixed for rates for installation of 5G small cells and optical fibre cable on street furniture.

The Department of Telecom has set up a 5G testbed with the help of IITs, IISc Bengaluru and SAMEER to develop technology in 2018.

A 5G hackathon was commenced in 2020 to trigger ideation and prototyping of use-cases by startups and has led to spurring innovative products, the official release said.

An inter-ministerial committee on 5G use cases has been functioning since 2021, in coordination with 12 central ministries, enabling the setting up of 5G use-case labs. Consultations with industry have been held enabling the 5G ecosystem to make handsets available.

C-DOT is also developing a 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) in collaboration with local industry and startups. It has already tested 4G Core in collaboration with TCS and Tejas Networks successfully.

“All these will help in answering the Prime Minister’s clarion call on ‘Jai Anusandhan’. All these efforts are game-changers for India’s manufacturing and Telecom ecosystem leading to domestic 5G enterprise carrier grade stacks as well as innovative impactful 5G use-cases,” the release said.

 

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Department of Telecom Said to Receive Rs. 17,876 Crore From Operators as Upfront Payment for 5G Spectrum

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has received upfront payment of around Rs 17,876 crore from Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Adani Data Networks and Vodafone Idea for spectrum they won in a recent auction, according to sources. While all telecom operators have opted to make payments in 20 annual installments, Bharti Airtel has paid Rs 8,312.4 crore equivalent to four annual installments.

Reliance Jio has made payment of Rs. 7,864.78 crore, Vodafone Idea Rs. 1,679.98 crore and Adani Data Networks Rs. 18.94 crore.

“DoT has received a total payment of around Rs. 17,876 crore. Only Bharti Airtel has paid for four annual installments at one go,” an official source said.

The country’s biggest-ever auction of telecom spectrum received a record Rs. 1.5 lakh crore worth of bids, with Mukesh Ambani’s Jio cornering nearly half of all airwaves sold with a Rs. 87,946.93 crore bid.

Gautam Adani’s group has placed bids worth Rs 211.86 crore for the 400 MHz in a band that is not used for offering public telephony services.

Telecom tycoon Sunil Bharti Mittal’s Bharti Airtel made a successful bid of Rs. 43,039.63 crore, while Vodafone Idea Ltd bought spectrum for Rs. 18,786.25 crore.

On Wednesday, telecom operator Airtel announced that it had paid Rs. 8,312.4 crore to the Department of Telecom towards dues for spectrum acquired in the recently concluded 5G auctions.

With the payment, Airtel has paid four years of 2022 spectrum dues upfront. The company had an option to pay Rs. 3,848.88 crore upfront and the rest in 19 annual instalments.

Airtel said it believes that this upfront payment, coupled with the moratorium on spectrum dues and AGR (adjusted gross revenue)-related payments for four years, will free up future cash flows and allow Airtel to dedicate resources to single-mindedly concentrate on the 5G rollout.

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Airtel Shareholders Approve to Reappoint Gopal Vittal as Managing Director

Bharti Airtel’s shareholders have approved the re-appointment of Gopal Vittal as managing director of the company for a period of five years with effect from February 1, 2023.

Over 97 percent of total votes polled were in favour of the resolution, and the same “has been passed with requisite majority”, Airtel said in a regulatory filing on the outcome of its Annual General Meeting (AGM).

The shareholders also approved a special resolution related to payment of remuneration to Vittal as managing director and CEO of the company, with 89.57 percent votes in favour and 10.42 percent against the proposal.

“Therefore the above resolution has been passed with requisite majority,” the filing said.

The AGM of the company was held on Friday (August 12).

As per the notice of AGM dated July 21, 2022, shareholders’ nod was sought for “re-appointment of Gopal Vittal as Managing Director (designated as Managing Director and CEO) for a further period of five (5) years with effect from February 1, 2023, liable to retire by rotation…” Vittal was re-appointed as the managing director and CEO with effect from February 1, 2018 for a period of 5 years, (upto January 31, 2023). His re-appointment was due for another term of five years (that is from February 1, 2023 to January 31, 2028).

The AGM agenda circulated earlier, giving out the details of the proposed remuneration to be paid to Vittal, mentioned the fixed pay to be Rs. 9.6 crore per annum “or such other amount as may be determined by the Board of Directors of the company, provided that increment, if any, during the subsequent years, shall not exceed 15 percent per annum of the fixed pay of preceding financial year.” It further said the variable pay (Performance Linked Incentive) to be paid annually after the end of the financial year is Rs. 6.2 crore (at 100 percent performance). The total variable pay shall not exceed 90 percent of the annual fixed pay for any financial year, it added.

For 2021-22, Vittal’s fixed pay (excluding perquisites) stood at Rs. 9.1 crore, in addition to a variable pay component.

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Wynk Music Plans Foray Into Distribution Ecosystem; to Invest Rs. 100 Crore to Promote Music Talent

Airtel’s Wynk Music will invest Rs. 100 crore to promote music talent through its platform as part of foraying into the distribution ecosystem for independent artists based in India and overseas. Airtel Digital CEO Adarsh Nair on Thursday said the creator economy for music is at a nascent stage but poised to grow significantly.

“With Wynk Studio, we are building a platform that allows an aspiring musician to pursue their passion and earn income at the same time. We are looking to attract talent from across the world and scale the platform to 5,000 artists in the next one year,” he said in a statement.

Wynk Studio has over 100 artists on the platform from India, Singapore and the United States. Some of the artists, including Nishad Patki from Pune, Gagan Baderiya from Bengaluru and Harsha Prawin from Hyderabad are doing over a million streams each.

The studio will enable artists to launch their music and will also partner them in monetising their music on a host of platforms.

“Wynk has also earmarked a sum of Rs. 100 crore to promote local talent on the application and enable their discovery,” the statement said.

According to the statement, the Indian music industry is at an inflection point with Indians on an average spending about 21 hours per week listening to music as against a global average of 18 hours.

“Almost 30 percent of the top performing songs across any music platform in India are today from independent artists and these independent artists are all set to drive the growth of the industry by 50 percent from roughly Rs. 2,000 crore at the moment to Rs. 3,000 crore by 2025,” it added.

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Airtel Reports 16.6 Percent YoY Increase in Mobile Data Consumption, Posts 22 Percent Rise in Q2 Revenue

Bharti Airtel, India’s second-biggest telecom operator, on Monday, reported a 22.2 percent increase in quarterly revenue, boosted by 4G subscriber additions and higher data consumption.

The average revenue per user (ARPU)– a key performance indicator in the telecom industry – came in at Rs. 183 rupees for the quarter, up from Rs. 146 from a year earlier. ARPU of rivals Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea for the same period was Rs. 175.7 and Rs. 128, respectively.

Analysts expected the first-quarter ARPU to be boosted by a residual impact of tariff increase done late last year.

The company’s consolidated revenue from operations rose to Rs. 32,805 crore for the quarter ended June 30, from Rs. 26,854 billion in the same period last year, according to a regulatory filing.

Airtel said mobile data consumption surged by 16.6 percent from a year ago, with consumption per mobile data customer at 19.5 GB per month.

The company said in November, when it announced tariff hikes, that mobile ARPU needed to be at Rs. 200 and ultimately at Rs. 300, for a financially healthy business model.

Consolidated net profit rose to Rs. 1,607 crore rupees for the quarter ended June 30, from Rs. 284 crore a year ago.

The company has been raising money to fund its digital ambitions, including developing home broadband, data centres, cloud adoption as it prepares to launch its next-generation 5G services in the country.

Airtel last week won 5G spectrum worth $5.4 billion (roughly Rs. 43,000 crore) in the country’s $19 billion (roughly Rs. 1.5 lakh crore) auction. The government aims to begin the rollout of 5G – which it says can provide data speeds about 10 times faster than 4G – by October this year.

© Thomson Reuters 2022

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Over 5 Crore Complaints Received Against Telcos Over Mobile Services in FY22, MoS Communications Says

More than five crore complaints were received against telecom operators related to mobile services during 2021-22, with about 54 per cent of them against Airtel, followed by Vodafone Idea, Parliament was informed on Friday. Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, gave data on complaints received against various telecom service providers related to mobile telephony during 2021-22, as per which the number for Airtel stood at 2,99,68,519, and for Vodafone Idea at 2,17,85,460.

The number of such complaints against Reliance Jio was 25.8 lakh.

In all, nearly 5.5 crore complaints related to cellular mobile telephone services were registered by consumers through helpline numbers of operators at complaint centres during 2021-22.

The number of complaints against state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) stood at 8.8 lakh and 48,170 respectively.

“The complaints received at complaint centres through customer helpline numbers are resolved by the concerned service provider,” the minister said.

Where the complaints are not resolved by the service providers, the complainant can approach the public grievance wing of the Department of Telecommunications. All the grievances so received are monitored and resolved through the Centralised Public Grievance Redressal and Monitoring System (CPGRAMS) portal.

“The number of grievances received during 2021-22 through CPGRAMS portal was 58911, out of which 58,224 were resolved,” the minister added.

To another question, Chauhan said the number of BSNL customers who opted for network port out stood at 52.3 lakh in 2021-22, while the subscribers porting in were at 28.8 lakh.

Stiff competition in the telecom sector drove both port in and port out for BSNL, he added.

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Reliance Jio Reports 24 Percent Rise in Q2 Profit to Rs. 4,335 Crore, Ahead of Upcoming 5G Auction: Details

India’s largest telecom operator Reliance Jio Infocomm on Friday reported a nearly 24 percent year-on-year rise in its standalone net profit to Rs. 4,335 crore for the June 2022 quarter. Billionaire Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio clocked revenue from operations of Rs. 21,873 crore in the just-ended quarter, which was 21.5 percent higher than the year-ago period, according to a filing.

Jio’s Q1 scorecard comes at a time when the telecom market is poised for the advent of 5G services, which will usher in ultra-high speeds (about 10 times faster than 4G) and bring new-age services and business models.

The countdown to 5G spectrum auctions has begun, and a total of 72 GHz of radiowaves worth at least Rs. 4.3 lakh crore will be put on the block during the upcoming auction, scheduled to begin on July 26.

Earlier this week, it was reported that Reliance Jio Infocomm had submitted an earnest money deposit (EMD) of Rs. 14,000 crore ahead of its participation in the upcoming 5G auction, while Bharti Airtel has put in Rs. 5,500 crore. Vodafone Idea has put in an EMD of Rs. 2,200 crore.

According to the list of pre-qualified bidders posted on the telecom department’s website, the EMD amount of Adani Data Networks stands at Rs. 100 crore. With its EMD at Rs. 14,000 crore, the eligibility points assigned to Jio for the auction stand at 1,59,830, the highest in the list of four bidders.

Typically, EMD amounts give a broad indication of players’ appetite, strategy and plan for picking up spectrum in an auction. It also determines the eligibility points, through which telcos target specific amount of spectrum in a given circle.

The eligibility points allocated to Airtel are 66,330, while that of Vodafone Idea are 29,370. Adani Data Networks received eligibility points of 1,650, based on its deposit. The 5G spectrum auction is scheduled to start on July 26.

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After PhonePe, Paytm Starts Taking Surcharge on Mobile Recharges

Paytm has started taking a surcharge for mobile recharges through its platform. The charge can be anywhere between Re. 1 and Rs. 6 — depending on the recharge amount. It is applicable on all Paytm mobile recharges, irrespective of the payment mode — whether done through Paytm Wallet balance or Unified Payments Interface (UPI) or bank credit or debit card. The update is notably not applicable to all users at this moment. Last year, Paytm competitor PhonePe started a pilot to charge a surcharge on mobile recharges.

According to user reports available on Twitter, Paytm started taking the surcharge as a convenience fee, though Gadgets 360 can now confirm that the additional charge is available as a platform fee. It appeared to be initially rolled out to a few users in late March. However, the sudden increase in the recent user reports suggest that the update is now applicable to a large number of users.

Gadgets 360 was able to independently verify that the surcharge is not applicable to all Paytm users at this moment. It is also important to note that the additional charge is applicable on transactions above Rs. 100.

Paytm is taking surcharge on mobile recharges from some users

 

However, the select users who have been considered as a part of the update need to pay up to Rs. 6 as an additional charge over and above the mobile recharge amount that they are paying through the Paytm app.

A person familiar with the development told Gadgets 360 that Paytm was taking the surcharge from some users as one of the experiments to grow its revenues.

In 2019, Paytm posted on Twitter to claim that it would not charge any convenience or transaction fee from customers on using any payment method which included cards, UPI, and wallet.

 

A query sent to Paytm didn’t elicit a response at the time of publishing this article.

Similar to Paytm, PhonePe in October started charging a surcharge that it calls “processing fee” to customers for mobile recharges above Rs. 50. The Walmart-owned company at the time said that the charge was applicable under a “small-scale experience” and was not affecting all users.

User reports available on social media, though, indicate that the number of users seeing the additional charge on their PhonePe account is not minuscule as hundreds of users have reported that the platform is levying the additional charge for their mobile recharges.

Both PhonePe and Paytm have yet not officially revealed the criteria that they use to pick customers for charging the additional fee.

A PhonePe spokesperson declined to comment on queries around its criteria for the experiment and the total base of its users selected for the surcharge.

Payment Council of India (PCI) Chairman Vishwas Patel told Gadgets 360 that telcos in the country recently reduced commission to around 50 percentage-in-point (pip) on transactions to the online retailers. In addition to that, he noted that if a customer was paying through a credit card, where the merchant discount rate (MDR) is 1.8 percent, it was not possible for the online retailer to process recharges.

Nevertheless, platforms including Amazon Pay and Google Pay are not charging any additional charges for mobile recharges at this moment. Some of the price-conscious users are, therefore, moving their recharge tasks to these platforms for the time being.

Telecom operators including Airtel, Vi and Jio also support mobile recharges through their native apps. The surcharge by Paytm and PhonePe could, thus, be an opportunity for telcos to incline customers towards their solutions over time.



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Airtel Rs. 999 Prepaid Plan With Amazon Prime Subscription Launched

Airtel has launched a new Rs. 999 prepaid plan that comes with Amazon Prime Subscription, free access to any one of the select Xstream channels, among other benefits. The development comes 10 days after Airtel halved the validity of Amazon Prime membership available with its postpaid plans. Instead of a year’s subscription, users are getting Amazon Prime access for six months now. The change was brought to Rs. 499, Rs. 999, Rs. 1,199, and Rs. 1,599 Airtel postpaid plans.

Airtel has launched the Rs. 999 prepaid plan as an unlimited pack that offers Amazon Prime subscription for 84 days, access to one Xstream channel (SonyLiv, LionsgatePlay, ErosNow, HoiChoi, ManoramaMAX) for 84 days, 2.5GB data per day, unlimited talktime, and 100 SMS per day. It is to be noted that Amazon Prime membership fee for 90 days is Rs. 459. The plan is listed on the telecom operator’s site.

Other benefits include Rs. 100 cashback on FASTag, free Hellotunes, 3 months of Apollo Circle membership, Shaw Academy courses, and Wynk Music. Gadgets 360 was able to spot the plan listed on Airtel website, and the company confirmed it was launched on Thursday. The new plan’s listing was first spotted by OnlyTech.

A few days ago, the telecom giant revised the validity of Amazon Prime membership available with Rs. 499, Rs. 999, Rs. 1,199, and Rs. 1,599 Airtel postpaid plans. Airtel cut the subscription duration from one year to six months.

Earlier this month, Airtel expanded its prepaid portfolio by launching the Rs. 296 and Rs. 319 recharge plans. The Rs. 296 Airtel prepaid recharge plan offers unlimited voice calls, 100 SMS messages per day, and a total of 25GB data for 30 days. The Rs. 319 Airtel prepaid recharge plan comes with unlimited voice calls, offers 100 SMS messages on a daily basis, and 2GB high-speed data per day for a month. Other benefits include three months of Apollo 24×7 Circle, and a Rs. 100 cashback on FASTag. The plans also come with free access to Wynk Music.

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