City Sanchar Financial News

NCC shares will be in focus on Wednesday after the infrastructure company secured two advance work orders worth Rs 10,804.56 crore (excluding GST) from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for the design, supply, construction, installation, upgradation, operation, and maintenance of the middle-mile network of BharatNet. «The company has received two advance work orders dated 25th March 2025 from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for the design, supply, construction, installation, upgradation, operation, and maintenance of the middle-mile network of BharatNet in the Uttarakhand Telecom Circle (Package No. 05) and Madhya Pradesh, DNH & DD Telecom Circles (Package No. 01),» NCC said in an exchange filing.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.MUMBAI: The Centre is exploring partnerships with real estate-focused global investors to form real estate investment trusts (Reits) that will house optic fibre networks and land assets of central public sector enterprises (CPSEs), multiple people with knowledge of the matter said. The assets under consideration could also be repurposed for data centre infrastructure, potentially widening investor appeal.The plan, still at an early stage, is part of a broader push to accelerate government asset monetization following the Union budget for 2026-27, which proposed using Reit structures to recycle state-owned assets and attract institutional capital.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.NEW DELHI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has set an ambitious target of increasing its average revenue per user (Arpu) by almost 50% to ₹150 in the current fiscal year. This after a recent annual review flagged concerns “regarding the stagnation of core business revenue” of the state-owned telecom operator, according to the meeting document seen by Mint.The target was set at a review meeting of BSNL with communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on 23 April.

Mint.Other action points listed in the minutes include: trimming state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)'s workforce, securing national networks, a roadmap for component localisation, and resolving issues in the undersea cable industry. SIM cards should be issued only on the basis of Aadhaar cards after biometric verification, it noted.Most countries tax income of companies that have data at the core of their business or some try to reduce screen usage in other ways with restrictions on timings of gaming services or age of consumers."Any kind of taxes on data usage would be impossible to implement.

As part of a broader effort to cut costs, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will shut down its 3G mobile services nationwide. The state-owned telecom operator also plans to terminate annual maintenance contracts (AMCs) with vendors such as Nokia and Chinese equipment maker ZTE for the 3G sites, according to two officials familiar with the matter and letters seen by Mint.The move comes as the state-run telecom operator focuses on its 4G network, having currently installed 97,481 4G towers across the country.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. BENGALURU: As automation seeps further into workflows across industries, India’s largest IT services companies are feeling the pressure, not just on revenue, but also in their standing among the country’s corporate elite. Simply put, four of India’s largest IT services firms—Tata Consultancy Services Ltd, Infosys Ltd, HCL Technologies Ltd, and Tech Mahindra Ltd—once held a “villa" in the BSE Sensex.

The report attributed this slowdown to seasonal weakness and reduced discretionary spending on digital transformation projects by global clients. It said, «We expect IT services companies within our coverage to report subdued growth during 4QFY25 on seasonal weakness and lower discretionary digital transformation spends.»

Polycab shares will be in focus on Thursday after the company secured a Rs 3,002.99 crore contract from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for the BharatNet project in Bihar. Under the agreement, Polycab will serve as the Project Implementation Agency (PIA), overseeing the design, supply, construction, installation, upgradation, operation, and maintenance of the middle-mile network.

Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel were the only telecom operators to see net subscriber additions in December, while state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and cash-strapped Vodafone Idea (Vi) continued losing subscribers, showed data issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Tuesday. Jio added 3.9 million customers in December, while Bharti Airtel reversed its trend of customer loss to add 1.03 million wireless subscribers, the data showed. In the same period, Vi lost 1.7 million users, while BSNL's subscriber base declined by 0.32 million (320,000) after three straight months of subscriber additions till October after tariff hikes by private telcos.

telecom gear contract for upgrading Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) network to 5G, people familiar with the matter said. While a final decision is yet to be taken, this still marks a major shift in the government's thinking as it had till now backed only indigenous technology for the state-run carrier's 4G services, and also for 5G upgradation. The change in the government's stance comes amid growing recognition of the need to accelerate upgradation of BSNL's countrywide 5G mobile broadband rollout to boost its market competitiveness.

Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) steps into the new year facing a new set of challenges: Increasing competition, continued macro uncertainty, and an absence of mega deals. However, experts see opportunities for a demand uptick, deal consolidation, digital transformation projects, and artificial intelligence moving into the production stage, indicating that 2025 will be better than the previous year for the Tata Group company with an annual revenue of $29 billion. CEO K Krithivasan has stabilised the ship in a tough market since taking charge more than a year and a half ago, analysts say. He will now need to perform on reversing revenue erosion from account rampdowns, including its 4G network deal with state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in India, its fastest growing market.

The 4G expansion in India is set to get a big boost. The government has decided to strengthen the public sector companies- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) by approving an additional Rs 6,000 crore for scaling their 4G expansion projects in India, according to a MoneyControl report.  

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Shares of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have soared 25% in just a few days, but this isn’t a sign of a turnaround—it’s a rally driven by relief. Investors are cheering yet another government intervention to keep the struggling state-owned telecom operator afloat.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) delivered what the Street had been eagerly awaiting—an optimistic demand outlook. The management of the IT services major highlighted early signs of recovery in discretionary demand across key sectors such as banking, financial services and insurance (BFSI), and consumer, during its December quarter (Q3FY25) earnings call.

Reliance Jio's heavy 4G and 5G user losses following recent tariff hikes triggered a sharp fall in India's mobile broadband user base in September — the first decline after two years of steady growth since the launch of 5G services in October 2022. India's 4G-cum-5G user base plunged by a record 5.6 million in September, shrinking the nation's mobile broadband user base to 901 million, latest subscriber data collated by Trai showed. This user base had earlier risen from 790 million in October 2022 to around 906 million in August 2024. According to Trai data, Jio lost 8 million 4G/5G users in September while Airtel and Vodafone Idea added 0.4 million mobile broadband users each. State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), which did not raise prices, added 1.5 million such users.

Bharti Airtel, Jio Financial and Vodafone Idea are likely to remain in focus on Friday as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) released the subscriber data as of September 30, 2024. According to the latest data as of September 30, 2024, India's broadband market continues to be dominated by five major players who collectively command 98.42% of the total wired and wireless broadband market share.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea cumulatively lost over one crore wireless subscribers in September, even as state-owned BSNL surprised with net adds of almost 8.5 lakh mobile users, as per monthly data released by TRAI. Reliance Jio lost 79.69 lakh mobile subscribers in September compared to the previous month, Bharti Airtel (14.34 lakh users), and Vodafone Idea (15.53 lakh users). Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) added 8.49 lakh users to its wireless subscriber tally. The wireless subscriber base of Reliance Jio stood at 46.37 crore in September, while that of Bharti Airtel was 38.34 crore. The wireless user base of Vodafone Idea was 21.24 crore as of September 2024.

Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea—continued to suffer major customer losses for the third month in a row in September, even as state-run BSNL continued its addition spree, following the mobile tariffs hikes by the private telcos in early July. As per data released by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) for the month of September, Jio lost 7.9 million wireless customers, followed by Vodafone Idea which saw a decline of 1.5 million wireless customers and Bharti Airtel lost 1.4 million wireless users. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), was the only telco which added wireless customers in September as the state-run firm had not raised tariffs and is benefitting because users are shifting to the company. BSNL added 849,493 subscribers during the month. The three private telcos had raised mobile rates in the range of 11-25% in early July and these firms have been seeing their user base decline after that.

HFCL Ltd on Monday said the company along with its consortium partners has been declared the lowest bidder for optical fibre-based broadband network projects worth Rs 13,000 crore under BharatNet Phase III for UP East, UP West and Punjab circles. The company placed bids for UP East and UP West through consortium partners and alone for the Punjab circle. «HFCL-Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL)-Aerial Telecom Solutions Private Limited, a Consortium has been declared as the Lowest Bidders by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), for bids valued at around Rs 6,925 crore to provide middle-mile network in Uttar Pradesh (East) and Uttar Pradesh (West) under the BharatNet Phase III programme,» the company said in the filing. The consortium will be awarded 10 years of operation and maintenance (O&M) order at an annual rate of 5.5 per cent of capex for the first five years and 6.5 per cent for the subsequent five years which will be worth about Rs 4,155 crores, after commissioning of the first ring of network, the filing said.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Observers of the Indian information technology (IT) services space expect Infosys Ltd to post the fastest revenue growth among the industry’s top five for the quarter ended September 2024. Brokerages Axis Capital and Nomura in their notes predicted sequential revenue growth upwards of 4% for Infosys, whereas HDFC Securities projected 3% jump in revenue.

Indian telecom market operates as an oligopoly, with a few major players offering similar services and greatly affecting pricing. When one company lowers prices the others typically follow suit, but the reverse is not always true. We saw an instance of this when Reliance Jio entered the market, prompting price cuts across the board.