VARINDIA IT MAGAZINE

Recent tariff changes to benefit Vi, Airtel, Jio:  The three private telecom operators of the nation,   Vodafone Idea ,   Bharti Airtel , and   Reliance Jio   will certainly benefit from the recent changes in tariffs and offers provided to the customers. In the September quarter, multiple things took place, such as telcos removed their base plans to earn more out of low average revenue per user (ARPU) customers. Then the telcos introduced bulk data plans with new validities, which were slightly on the more expensive end. Telcos even withdrew the offers and benefits (talktime and data) that they were providing to their customers.   Due to this consumer spending is going to increase substantially, which will help the operators in increasing their ARPU. With their ARPU slightly increased, the operators are expected to continue exploring ways to expand their subscriber market share until 5G comes, but that is a topic of discussion for some other day.   The...

Vodafone wishes to sell part of Indus stake to fund VI:  Vodafone Group Plc   is considering selling a small portion of its 28.12% stake in Indus Towers to inject capital into its ailing Indian telecom joint venture,   Vodafone Idea (Vi) . This comes even as Vodafone Idea’s potential global lenders are pressing the telco's co-promoters - the UK telecom major and India’s   Aditya Birla Group   - for some capital infusion to improve their overall comfort levels, three people with direct knowledge said.   The Vodafone Group has previously said that it would not infuse any fresh equity into Vi. But its stake in the now-listed Indus Towers is an existing and separate telecom-related investment in India, which may make it easier for the British telco to convince shareholders, if required.   According to sources, formalising the final funding terms, leading to a binding term sheet, is expected next month, but the timeline also depends on how soon on...

Due to the rapid growth of smartphones in the market, fixed line connections declined steadily down to 22.81 million connections. Though state-run firm BSNL dominated the market with highest share of 12.26 million customers, it lost 5,304 customers. RCom lost 169,052 fixed line connections and MTNL 10,157 connections. Airtel topped the chart in terms of market share with 304.19 million subscribers, followed by Vodafone 222.69 million and Idea with 211.2 million customers. Indian telecom industry in a stage of consolidation. Vodafone led new subscriber addition by adding 12,280 fixed line connections, taking its total subscriber base to 220,981. With this the number of broadband subscribers increased to 412.6 million in March from from 392.06 million in February. The mobile segment accounted for over 95 per cent of the total broadband connections.... Read More

Vodafone India has invested Rs.1,300 crore on ramping up network and distribution in Kolkata and Rest of Bengal circles over FY 17 and FY 18. Already, the preferred mobile services provider Vodafone, in terms of Subscriber base, Revenue Market Share, Retail touch points, has been focussing on closer engagement and enhancing customer experience in an endeavour to be future-ready.  Strengthening and expanding of network across multiple regions of Bengal brought 37,049 villages within its network. Vodafone has covered 2,380 towns, including all the key towns like Darjeeling, Gangtok, Bashirhat, Nabadwip, Bardhaman, Durgapur, Asansol, Bolpur, Krishnanagar, Midnapore, Kharagpur, Berhampore and others in Bengal circle with 4G SuperNet.The company has invested over Rs.10,000+ crore till date and ~Rs.1,300 crore in the last year in Kolkata and Rest of Bengal.... Read More

The Competition Commission of India (CCI) has unconditionally approved the merger of the telecommunications businesses of Vodafone India Limited, and its wholly-owned subsidiary Vodafone Mobile Services Limited, with Idea Cellular Limited. The US$23-billion transaction is the largest transaction in terms of value in the history of Indian M&A.  Shardul Amarchand Mangaldas & Co. acted for Vodafone India Limited and Vodafone Mobile Services Limited before the CCI.  The telecommunications sector in India is witnessing significant consolidation after the entry of Reliance Jio last year. This merger will allow the parties to invest more significantly in improving coverage and capacity in telecom infrastructure, thereby enabling Vodafone-Idea to offer a better, more innovative and attractive range of services to Indian consumers, fuelling the Digital India initiative of the Government.... Read More

Vodafone India has partnered with HMD Global for their newly-launched Nokia Android smartphones. Vodafone has invited all customers buying the recently launched a range of smartphones – Nokia 6, Nokia 5, and Nokia 3 to experience its Data strong network with its exciting offers.  Customers buying Nokia 5 and Nokia 3 smartphones will enjoy 5GB data (4GB additional data) on a purchase of 1GB Data for 3 months (or 3 recharges, whichever comes first) for just Rs.142. In addition, all customers buying Nokia 6 smartphones (available exclusively on Amazon) will enjoy 10GB data (9GB additional data) on purchase of 1GB data for 3 months, at just Rs.251. Vodafone postpaid customers can also avail a total of 5GB/10GB of 4G or 3G data per month for 3 consecutive billing cycles if they have a minimum of 1GB pack activated on their monthly rental .... Read More

Vodafone has announced a revolutionary new product, Vodafone SuperNight for prepaid customers, enabling truly unlimited 3G/4G data usage and download for five hours, at just Rs. 29 beginning June 19. The pack can be activated any time of the day but will be applicable only during the subsequent five hours between 1 am to 6 am. Further, customers can make every night a SuperNight with unlimited repeat purchase of the Vodafone SuperNight and enjoy data at just Rs 6/hour.  Announcing the launch of this innovative product, Sandeep Kataria, Chief Commercial Officer, Vodafone India said, “We are delighted to bring Vodafone SuperNight to our customers under our ‘Super’ umbrella. Like all other ‘Super’ products, it breaks all price barriers that concern customers in their use of internet. These SuperNight packs will enable them to download as much data as they want for five hours at a fixed, nominal price. It will help our customers to enjoy the SuperNet experience in a worry f...

Vodafone has launched its Vodafone SuperNet 4G service in Maharashtra. Vodafone SuperNet 4G was launched in Nagpur by Shri Chandrashekhar Bawankule, Hon’ble Minister of Energy and Excise, Government of Maharashtra and the Guardian Minister of Nagpur, and will be made available in several more towns and cities across the state by March 2017. Built on the efficient 2,100 MHz band, this state-of-the-art network will enable Vodafone SuperNet 4G customers to access internet via mobile with speeds across a range of smart devices, including Mi-Fi and dongles. Vodafone 4G services can be readily accessed from 4G-enabled handsets, offered by leading smartphone manufacturers and available across the country... Read More

Arrow Electronics has joined hands with Vodafone, a global market leader for cellular network services and managed internet of things (IoT) connectivity to market Vodafone's IoT services as part of its eVolve IoT offering.   Vodafone's solutions and services expand and enhance Arrow's go-to-market strategy in the fast-growing market segments within IoT. Arrow's extensive IoT technology solutions stack and professional services are now complemented with differentiated network services from a global leader.   The combination of Arrow and Vodafone solutions creates a compelling offering with global network coverage, wireless and embedded edge technology, system integration, data platform and cloud integration, enterprise computing, IoT edge device connectivity and application enablement for millions of connected devices.... 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

Huawei and Vodafone Spain have completed the commercial implementation of dual-band High-Speed Downlink Packet Access (DB-HSDPA) technology. The solution delivers approximately double the amount of UMTS throughput compared to a single carrier on UMTS 900MHz. “Huawei and Vodafone have cooperated closely to ensure the successful commercial deployment of DB-HSDPA. We will endeavour to assure the provision of innovative solutions, and accelerate the pace and scale of DB-HSDPA’s commercial application to benefit more subscribers,” said Peng Honghua , President of Huawei’s UMTS Product Line... Read More

Vodafone has announced a month long Vodafone Delights bonanza whereby customers can now enjoy up to 67 percent more benefits on their existing packs. Kick starting this bonanza is the enhanced data benefit on most of its pre-paid packs. This additional value will enable them to enjoy their mobile internet experience further by staying online longer and accessing more of their favorite content. It will also make the Internet more affordable for customers who use mobile internet in a limited way and encourage first time users to come online... Read More

Huawei and Vodafone have completed a 5G mmWave field test at Vodafone Emerald House in the UK. The test covers SU-MIMO (Single User Multiple Input Multiple Output) with a strong reflection path to reach 20Gbps UE peak rate, and MU-MIMO (Multi User Multiple Input Multiple Output) for long-range UE to reach 10Gbps peak rate. It is the first 5G outdoor field test at E-Band reaching 20Gbps peak rate for a single user device with high spectrum efficiency. This peak user rate is targeted by ITU-R as a 5G requirement. This is a key milestone after the two companies signed a strategic MoU on 5G technologies last year and a 5G Acceleration MoU this July. Johan Wibergh, Chief Technology Officer, Vodafone Group, said, “This field test in an outdoor environment is a significant step in validating the performance of 5G in high- frequency bands, improving our understanding of the capabilities of the technology.” Read More

To further develop products and applications relating to Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) technology, Huawei and Vodafone together came up with an Narrowband IoT Open Lab. The Narrowband IoT Open Lab will provide a pre-integration testing environment for application developers and device, module and chip manufacturers. The Narrowband IoT Open Lab will offer support to developers and partners. They will work with both companies to explore developments including network solution verification, new application innovation, device integration, and product compliance certification. Huawei has plans to open seven such labs... Read more

The Government has recently taken initiatives to harmonize spectrum in select bands and reduce the subscriber usage charges (SUCs) which will lead to growth of telecom sector. Vodafone India has welcomed the government’s initiative. Commenting on the proposed spectrum harmonization, Sunil Sood, MD & CEO, Vodafone India , said, “Harmonizing the available spectrum to offer additional quantum via auction is another progressive step by the Government (after spectrum trading and sharing), to maximize efficiency of this precious resource. With Digital India as the guiding vision and consumer demands evolving from voice to data, the telecom industry increasingly needs more of quality spectrum to be made available at reasonable prices. An efficient spectrum also directly results in providing customers with a superior network experience.” Read more

Huawei has signed a Global Framework Agreement with Vodafone, extending the scope of strategic alliance in the enterprise business .  The newly expanded partnership will widen the range of cooperation and enable both the companies to meet the needs of Enterprise customers in the areas of fixed and mobile connectivity, Narrow Band IoT, and Total Communications Solutions. Jan Geldmacher, CEO, Vodafone Global Enterprise, said, “It is pleasing to be able to extend this agreement and I am looking forward to further success ...” Read more

Vodafone has announced the roll out of its next generation, high speed 4G network in Karnataka beginning with Mysuru. This is following the successful launch of its services in Kerala in December 2015. Built on the efficient 1800 MHz band, this state-of-the-art network will enable Vodafone 4G customers to access internet via mobile with speeds across a range of smart devices including Mobile Wi-Fi. Vodafone’s 4G service in Mysuru is built on a strong fibre backhaul, and is supported by its own new and superfast 3G services on a modern network of 2100 MHz.Vodafone also becomes one of the leading telecom operators in Karnataka to offer2G/3G/4Gservices on its own state of the art convergent radio technology – uniquely positioned to provide customers with seamless mobile internet experience... 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  

Of late, around 20 management-level executives of Tata Teleservices’ Kerala operation have joined Reliance Jio Infocomm with a 20-30-per cent hike in salary. With the Reliance Industries unit in the job market shopping staff for its yet-to-be-launched service, and ecommerce majors fattened by foreign funding always on the lookout for the best talent, telecom companies such as Tata Teleservices are seeing a flight of executives in the marketing, customer service and technology functions. Meanwhile, the heightened activity in the human resources market has also boosted the pay that top performers get in the telecom sector... Read more

Telecom operators including Vodafone, RCom, Aircel and MTS India are investing in technologies such as big data and analytics amid growth in data consumption as they look to retain subscribers and increase revenue per user. Analytics allow telecom companies to improve their data product offerings by better understanding customer demands and usage patterns, according to the operators. The equipment and networks that provide data services generate significant a lot of data that the operators use to identify and proactively address the network issues they face. This also helps the operators plan their network expansion strategies better. Vodafone India’s outgoing chief information officer Anthony Thomas said that the company has deployed big data technology and is piloting various scenarios to get insights into the company’s customers, usage pattern and needs... Read more