VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

The market share of mobile recharge has increased in India crossed 50% for the first time in 2020 as the pandemic led people to minimise stepping out to stores and instead opt for online transactions.   Feedback from the top Fintech companies including  Google Pay  and  PhonePe , payment gateway CC said there was a 55-75% surge in mobile recharge transactions.   At  Reliance Jio , the share of online recharges increased to 50% in the December quarter from 35% in the March quarter, after having touched 60% during the lockdown in the June-ended quarter, according to a senior company executive. At  Bharti Airtel , half of its recharge revenue for all of 2020 came from the digital channel for the first time, a company official said and at Vodafone Idea , they have also witnessed on the spike of digital payment medium been adopted by many consumers.   We saw a big spike in the recharge category since the country went into lockdown and the spike has con...

According to a news report,  Bharti Airtel  will rely heavily on an upward revision in mobile tariffs in the medium term to sustain a whopping $8 billion (Rs 56,000 crore) of incremental investments it is estimated to make over the next three years in greenfield 5G roll-outs and in expanding existing 4G networks.   It is estimated that Bharti Airtel will need to invest an incremental $5 billion (Rs 35,000 crore) over the first three years even for a selective 5G roll-out, and an additional $3 billion (Rs 21,000 crore) for 4G expansion, for which mobile pricing will need to be revised upwards, primarily to support upcoming investments in 5G spectrum and networks.   Studies show that there is a challenge as Bharti doesn’t see mobile tariffs rising anytime soon, and it is believed any meaningful increase in mobile pricing is at least 2-3 quarters away. Airtel's recent mega fund raise via rights issue, bond sales and an upcoming Africa IPO is expected to ad...

Bharti Airtel and Ericsson said that they have successfully conducted India’s first trial of Licensed Assisted Access (LAA) technology over a LIVE LTE network . LAA is a key technology as operators evolve their networks to achieve Gigabit LTE by opening up previously untapped resources of unlicensed spectrum delivering speeds once thought only possible over fiber. LAA enables the use of unlicensed spectrum in the 5 GHz band in combination with the licensed spectrum. With this, the subscribers get a massively enhanced mobile broadband experience and ultra-fast speeds, while operators make efficient use of unlicensed spectrum resources. Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel, states, “Airtel has always led the introduction of cutting-edge network technologies to serve its customers. We are pleased to partner Ericsson to conduct India’s first LAA trial, which is also a big step towards 5G and Gigabit networks. LAA is an important technology evolution that c...

According to the latest reports, Bharti Airtel's tower subsidiary Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers have decided to merge their companies to create one entity. With a combined revenue of around Rs.25,360 crore, and 1.63 lakh towers across 22 telecom service areas of the country, this new pan-India tower company, which will be named Indus Towers Ltd, will easily become the world's largest tower company. However, as per the reports, Bharti Airtel is planning a stake sale in the new tower company that will be formed after the merger. The company in a regulatory statement said, "The board has decided to engage with the potential investors for evaluating a strategic stake sale post the completion of the merger." The merger between Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers is happening at a time when Bharti Airtel's tower arm registered 8-per cent annual growth in revenues to Rs.14,490 crore, while its net profit slipped by 9 per cent to Rs.2,494 crore. The ...

Bharti Airtel (“Airtel”) and Gulf Bridge International (“GBI”) announced a strategic agreement to unlock the capacity on GBI’s India-Middle East-Europe submarine cable system. Under the agreement, Airtel will acquire the ownership of the India leg of GBI’s India-Middle East-Europe submarine cable. Airtel will also pick up a significant capacity on Middle East-Europe leg of GBI’s cable system. Airtel and GBI have also agreed to formulate joint Go to Market strategies and leverage the footprint of their respective global networks to serve global customers. Ajay Chitkara, Director and CEO for Global Voice and Data Business, Bharti Airtel said, “We are delighted to announce this agreement with GBI. With this, we are adding a large capacity to meet the growing data, content demand in markets like India as well as serve the connectivity needs of global carriers and enterprise customers. The agreement offers great synergies to Airtel and GBI as both partners will able to build...

Bharti Airtel and Tata have entered into an understanding (“Agreement”) to merge Consumer Mobile Businesses (CMB) of TTSL (Tata Teleservices Limited) and TTML (Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Limited) into Bharti Airtel. The acquisition is subject to requisite regulatory approvals.  Speaking on the partnership, Sunil Bharti Mittal, Chairman, Bharti Airtel, said, “This is a significant development towards further consolidation in the Indian mobile industry and reinforces our commitment to lead India’s digital revolution by offering world-class and affordable telecom services through a robust technology and solid spectrum portfolio. On completion, the proposed acquisition will undergo seamless integration; both on the customer as well as the network side, and further strengthen our market position in several key circles. The customers of Tata will be able to enjoy India’s widest and fastest voice & data network, and bouquet of Airtel’s best-in-class products and services.”....

Major telecom operators like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India, Idea Cellular and Reliance Jio have started preparations to bring in the latest “massive MIMO” technology into their respective networks. The massive MIMO technology is considering as a key factor in enabling 5G technology which is expected to be rolled out by 2020. According to the latest reports, brands like Bharti Airtel has already started the first round of deployment in Bangalore and Kolkata with ZTE (Chinese gear Vendor) and will soon expand to other parts too. While, the brands such as Reliance Jio and Vodafone too carried out trials of massive MIMO technology with ZTE recently.... Read More

According to news report, National Company Law Tribunal (NCLT) has given a nod for merger between Bharti Airtel and Telenor. NCLT has directed both the companies to hold a meeting of equity shareholders and unsecured creditors. In June, Bharti Airtel has already received a clBharti Airtelearance from the Competition Commission of India (CCI), Securities & Exchange Board of India (Sebi), BSE and the National Stock Exchange of India. With this acquisition, Bharti Airtel will be strengthening its 4G spectrum holdings and revenue share. After the closure of the deal, Airtel will get hold of Telenor’s 43.4 units of 4G spectrum in 1,800 MHz band which will help the company to reinforce its position in the battle with Reliance Jio Infocomm.... Read More

Bharti Airtel has announced the launch of Project Next - its digital innovation program aimed at transforming customer experience across all of its services and touch points. The company plans to invest up to Rs. 2,000 crores over the next 3 years under Project Next to launch several exciting digital innovations to step change the simplicity and interactivity of the Airtel customer experience. Project Next complements Airtel’s massive investments towards building a future ready network under Project Leap. Gopal Vittal, MD & CEO (India & South Asia), Bharti Airtel said, “At Airtel, everything that we do starts with our customers and we are obsessed about delivering a great experience to them. We look at the customer journey holistically and have identified 17 moments of truth. At each of these moments, our aspiration is to eliminate customer frustration and make the experience better via digital innovation." Read More

Telangana State Government has launched the ‘Hyderabad City Wi-Fi Project’ also known as Hy-Fi, with over 1000 hot-spots across the state capital which was Inaugurated by theHon’ble Mayor of Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation, Shri Bonthu Rammohan, the project will cover 3000 hotspot locations within the city. The launch ceremony was attended by many senior state government officials and dignitaries including Shri Jayesh Ranjan (IAS), Principal Secretary, ITE&C Department, Govt. of Telangana and Shri. B. Janardhan Reddy (IAS), Commissioner, GHMC. COAI is the technical advisor to the Government of Telangana in this ambitious project, was represented by Shri Rajan S. Mathews, Director General, COAI on the panel. Shri Mathews was joined by several leaders from the telecom industry including Shri Venkatesh Vijayraghavan, Circle CEO – Bharti Airtel, Shri Bala Malladi, CEO – ACT Fibernet and Shri Sujit Sen, Circle CEO – Indus Towers. In June 2015, under the ‘Digital Telang...

Bharti Airtel, India's largest telco today announced free data for 12 months, worth up to Rs 9,000, to customers who switch to Airtel 4G.  The 12 months offer is available to any customer with a 4G mobile handset that is currently not on the Airtel network. Any customer, including existing Airtel customers, upgrading to a new 4G handset can also avail this offer. This offer will be available to customer across India starting tomorrow and will close on February 28, 2017.   Customers will get free 3 GB data every month till December 31, 2017 with select prepaid and postpaid packs under this offer. This free data benefit will be over and above the pack/plan benefits.... Read More  

Bharti Airtel , India’s largest telecom operator has welcomed Reliance Jio’s entry to the digital world and wish them the very best. “We welcome Reliance Jio’s entry to the digital world and wish them the very best. We also welcome Jio’s call to leading operators to work together. As a responsible operator we will fulfill all our regulatory obligations as we have always done,” said Bharti statement. “Over the last 20 years, Airtel has been contributing towards building a digitally enabled India and remains fully committed to and take leadership in supporting the Government’s Digital India vision. We will continue to innovate and deliver best-in-class products and services to our customers,” added Bharti.... Read More

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone SuperNet has started rolling out Aadhaar based e-KYC solution following the notification by the department of telecom, government of India. Airtel e-KYC solution is live in company operated stores across Delhi NCR and the company plans to roll out solution across the country over the next few days. The solution will enable instant activation of Airtel mobile connection and thereby enhance customer convenience and experience. The digital verification, which is fully secure, will also eliminate paperwork and benefit the environment... Read More

Bharti Airtel , India’s largest telecommunications services provider, today announced that customers purchasing Samsung Galaxy J series mobile device, can enjoy 10 GB Airtel 4G data at the price of 1 GB 4G data. Available with most of the Samsung Galaxy J series devices , under the offer, new and existing Airtel prepaid users can avail 10 GB of 4G data at a nominal cost of Rs 250. To claim the offer, customers will simply have log on to www.offers.airtel.com from their new Samsung J series devices using Airtel mobile internet (not Wi-fi) and follow instructions. Users can also visit their nearest Airtel Retail outlets to upgrade to Airtel 4G and activate the offer... Read More

Bharti Airtel (Airtel) has announced a new initiative – Open Network – under Project Leap, its national network transformation initiative. Airtel has opened up its entire mobile network information to its customers through an interactive online interface. The new interface will display Airtel’s mobile network coverage/signal strength across India, in addition to network site deployment status... Read More

To increase Airtel’s reach to multiple new countries in the Middle East and provide better connectivity, GBI and Airtel Business have announced a strategic partnership. GBI is a global service provider that owns and operates a multilayer carrier neutral network connecting the world to the Middle East Ajay Chitkara, Director & CEO – Global Voice and Data Business, Bharti Airtel Ltd , said, “We are committed to providing the best-in-class service experience to our customers in the region and globally. This new partnership with GBI is a significant step in that direction. GBI being a key network asset for the region will not only improve our customers’ experience and reach but would also enable GBI’s customers to experience a seamless extension on the Airtel Global network spanning across 50 countries across five continents.” Read more

Bharti Airtel has declared that it will move all its prepaid mobile customers to the more affordable per second bill plan nationally. “Pay For What You Use” initiative as part of the company’s “Customer First” commitment, this will help ensure that customers pay only for the time they use the Airtel network. Ajai Puri, director – Market Operations, Bharti Airtel (India & South Asia) said “Our customers are the reason for us to be in business, we therefore constantly introduce innovative initiatives with a commitment to deliver a world class experience to them. While we continue to invest aggressively in our network quality and deploy new sites to further enhance our robust and wide network presence, as yet another token measure of our commitment we are today taking the lead to move our customers to the affordable per second plans ensuring that they pay only for what they use.” Read more

Vodafone India has started talks with IBM for renewal of a $1 billion (Rs 6,600 crore) outsourcing contract that is set to expire in June 2016. IBM, while trying to retain the contract, is also trying to sell its data analytics solutions to Vodafone as part of the order. Vodafone outsources services such as management of application development and the IT network. It already has a multi-vendor environment within the company from an IT perspective with TCS, Wipro, and TechM managing some parts. In another development, Bharti Airtel has also renewed its part of its outsourcing deal with IBM for five years and carved out other portions to IT companies including Wipro and Tech Mahindra, while retaining some of the work in-house... See more  

Bharti Airtel and Ericsson have inked a deal over rollout of 4G (LTE-FDD) network in Delhi. The two companies have also signed an agreement to expand 3G WCDMA network across eight telecom circles in India. Both the agreements are for four years. Ericsson will enable Bharti Airtel to meet growing customer demand for mobile broadband services while delivering superior network performance. On 4G, Airtel subscribers will be able to enjoy an improved smartphone experience, with faster web browsing, downloads, video on demand, and many other services. Abhay Savargaonkar, CTO, Bharti Airtel, said, “The Delhi market is currently experiencing a rapid increase in the uptake of data-centric services. We have made investment in high-speed 4G network to improve the data experience of the customer. We are delighted to partner with Ericsson to offer a world-class 4G  ...” Read more

The launch of high-speed 4G data services is set to become the next high-stakes battleground for telecom companies, and media buyers are expecting operators such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Jio Infocomm to spend millions of dollars on advertising over the next few months to grab market share. According to a person who in his previous job helped Bharti Airtel formulate its media plan, it will all depend on what Jio’s plans are. While an advertising war is inevitable, people will see the maximum action when Reliance plays its cards. All advertising will peak at that time. It is easy to understand why media buyers are salivating at the prospect of a reprise of the ad wars between telecom companies. Bharti Airtel, the only telecom operator to offer 4G services in India so far, is already promoting its services with an aggressive marketing campaign and media buyers expect Rs.400-Rs.500 crore to be spent by the operators over the next three-six months... Read more