Bharti Airtel News

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. As India’s telecom firms weigh the timing and need for tariff hikes, Reliance Jio Infocomm, India’s largest operator by market share, has ruled out any immediate increase, signalling confidence in organic growth in its average revenue per user (Arpu), driven by rising 5G usage. This contrasts with the stance of rival operators Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea that have repeatedly flagged the need for tariff correction to improve their returns on capital deployed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. MUMBAI , NEW DELHI : Telecom operator Bharti Airtel has begun testing mobile signals at the Navi Mumbai International Airport (NMIA), two people familiar with the development said, signalling progress on cellular connectivity at the facility that was inaugurated in late December. The development assumes significance as billionaire Gautam Adani’s newest airport has been operating for over a month without network coverage from private telecom operators, causing persistent connectivity issues for passengers.

Airtel, HDFC Bank, Macrotech Developers, Maruti Suzuki, Hindustan Zinc among others will be in focus due to various news developments. SpiceJet SpiceJet, which had regular flights to Nepal before the Covid pandemic, has received scheduled approval and slots from Kathmandu's Tribhuvan International Airport (TIA).

Bharti Airtel, one of India's leading telecommunications service providers, has launched its IPTV service in 2,000 cities across India. Customers can access an extensive library of on-demand content from 29 major streaming apps, including Netflix, Apple TV+, Amazon Prime Video, SonyLiv, and Zee5. The service also includes 600 popular television channels and high-speed Wi-Fi, with plans beginning at Rs 699. As an introductory offer, all Airtel customers will receive up to 30 days of free service upon purchasing an IPTV plan, which can be activated via the Airtel Thanks App.

Domestic benchmark index NSE Nifty ended 332.25 points at 24336.0, while the BSE Sensex closed 1064.12 points down at 80684.45.

Bharti Airtel, India’s second largest telco, has awarded a multi-billion deal to Swedish telecom gear maker Ericsson for extension of 4G and 5G contracts. “As per the new contract, Ericsson will deploy centralized RAN and Open RAN-ready solutions for network transformation which will help customers with wider coverage and enhanced capacity on the network. Ericsson will also undertake the software upgradation of its current deployed 4G radios thereby enhancing the customer experience,” the companies said in a joint statement Wednesday. ET had reported last month that the telco had likely finalised renewals worth $1.2 billion (about Rs 10,000 crore) with Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung and placed purchase orders for new 4G and 5G equipment.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. Telecom major Bharti Airtel has just announced a new CEO & MD, who will take charge 14 months from now—on 1 January 2026. That’s a long waiting period.

satellite spectrum, telecom tycoon Bharti Airtel's Sunit Mittal on Tuesday while addressing India Mobile Conferrence asserted that satcoms need to buy spectrum the same way telecom operators do along with paying license fees. «Telecom companies around the globe have done seminal work in connecting the world. They will take the satellite services into the remotest parts of the nations through the USO program and directly through themselves. The satellite companies who have ambitions to come into urban areas serving elite retail customers just need to take the telecom licenses like everybody with the same conditions and will have to buy the spectrum and pay license fees as the telecom players,» Mittal said. The issue around satellite spectrum allocation has once again become the point of disagreement between Reliance Jio and other satcom players.

Also read | Former Reliance Jio executive raises $130 mn to back mid-market startupsSome of the carriers raised the issue of messaging and calling apps like WhatsApp and Telegram being excluded from the telecom regulator's recommendation on new licensing rules. Telcos have for long demanded to bring calling and messaging apps, called OTTs, under the ambit of telecom licences as they provide calling and messaging services like any telecom operator.

Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL), the country’s largest conglomerate, several significant announcements are anticipated that could unlock value in the company’s shares. Jio's focus on monetisation with recent tariff hike and completion of 5G rollout has been leading the growth engine for the conglomerate.

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) believes that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) should examine the issue of backhaul spectrum holistically, particularly due to technology advancements such as 5G and 6G, said officials. While historically, backhaul airwaves were given administratively, or without auctioning, telecom operator Reliance Jio says such bandwidth can also be used for access, or mobility services, and hence should be auctioned, a point opposed by rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Satcom players such as Elon Musk-owned Starlink and Amazon's Project Kuiper want the same spectrum to be offered administratively, on a non-exclusive basis, for meeting their connectivity needs.

Telecom operators, in their latest submission to sector regulator Trai, have unanimously demanded to bring over-the-top apps like WhatsApp, Signal and Telegram within the ambit of the licensing regime under the new Telecommunication Act. Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and industry body COAI — in their comments on the consultation paper issued by Trai, seeking views on the framework for service authorisations to be granted under the Telecommunications Act, 2023 — have said that the calling and messaging apps should be brought under services to be provided through authorisation. «As per our understanding, OTT Communication services are covered under the new Telecom Act as an access service,» Telecom operators industry body COAI said in its submission to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Reliance Jio said the definition of 'message' and 'telecommunication service' under the newly enacted Telecommunication Act, 2023, includes all forms of telecommunication services, including the communication services provided over the top using the platform, servers or switches hosted in the public internet.

Nifty delivered a 4% year-on-year (YoY) growth in profit after tax (PAT), surpassing Motilal Oswal's estimate of 3%. This is the slowest growth since the pandemic quarter of 2020. Nifty heavyweights HDFC Bank, Tata Motors, ICICI Bank, Maruti Suzuki, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) contributed 127% of the incremental year-on-year earnings growth. In contrast, Bharat Petroleum Corporation (BPCL), JSW Steel, ONGC, Reliance Industries (RIL), and Grasim Industries had a negative impact on Nifty earnings, according to a preview note by the brokerage. State-run Coal India, Dr Reddy's Laboratories, Apollo Hospital, Adani Ports & Special Economic Zone (APSEZ), and Tata Steel have received earnings upgrades from Motilal Oswal. In contrast, BPCL, Bharti Airtel, Hero MotoCorp, JSW Steel, and IndusInd Bank are the top five earnings downgrades.

Bharti Global's acquisition of a strategic stake in BT (formerly British Telecom) is an unprecedented diversification for the Indian telecom industry. Sunil Mittal has pursued subscribers in Africa after building up an enviable base in his home market and has placed big bets on European satellite communications. The latest investment gives him exposure, at least as an investor, to better-yielding markets.

Vodafone Idea’s net loss narrowed sequentially to Rs 6434.4 crore in the fiscal first quarter,from Rs 7675 crore, on the back of lower finance and depreciation & amortisation costs, even though it continued to be dragged by heavy customer losses and high debt. Operationally, the joint venture between UK’s Vodafone and India’s Aditya Birla Group, continued to battle with operational challenges. The telco’s average revenue per user (ARPU) — a key performance metric — remained flat sequentially at Rs 146, even though the full impact of the recent headline rate hikes will flow in only from the fiscal second quarter. But there was a marginal rise in 4G user base that boosted data usage sequentially.

Airtel said on Tuesday. The company also said it plans to roll out fixed wireless access (FWA) broadband services on pure 5G network by September. Airtel said its mobile subscribers' average revenue per user (ARPU) increased by 5.4 per cent to Rs 211 during June 2024 quarter compared to Rs 200 in the same period a year ago. Bharti Airtel Managing Director Gopal Vittal during the company's earnings call on Tuesday said that tariff hike in July was very much required for the financial health of the industry.

5G-based fixed wireless access (FWA) services is pushing wired broadband growth in India, with Reliance Jio outpacing its closest rival Bharti Airtel. Between May 2023 and May 2024, Jio's wired broadband user base jumped 34.5% versus Bharti Airtel's 24.2%, latest telco subscriber data collated by the regulator showed. As of end of May, Jio's wired broadband user base stood at 12 million compared to Airtel's 8 million. Analysts say 5G-based FWA services may be seeing traction, which could break the monetisation logjam and open new revenue streams for India's telcos. A key reason for this is monthly average revenue per user (ARPU) from the 5G-based FWA business is seen to be at least three-times higher (at ₹600) than 5G mobile ARPUs.

Benchmark NSE Nifty index fell 33.05 points to 23533.95 amid selling in frontline bluechip stocks.

Reliance Jio continued to outpace rivals Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea in active wireless subscriber and high-paying 4G/5G users, telecom regulator data for April showed. Reliance Jio added more active subscribers during the period, adding 3.06 users, while Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea lost 2.09 million and 0.63 million active subscribers respectively, according to the data released by the telecom regulatory authority of India (TRAI) on Wednesday. Active, or visitor location register (VLR) data put out every month by Trai indicates the number of mobile users regularly using a mobile network.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) is confident its operational creditors, including network gear makers Nokia and Ericsson and tower vendor Indus will continue to support it despite delays in clearing their dues as the telco’s upcoming 4G-cum-5G blitz will generate fresh business for them. “Vendor negotiations shouldn’t impact, despite payment issues. With (our) peers’ post-5G capex peak, equipment vendors potentially see Vi as the primary source of growth, making their support likely in addition to the recent preference shares issued for part dues,” Vi’s CFO Murthy GVAS told global brokerage J P Morgan at a recent meeting. Global brokerage J P Morgan also quoted Vi’s Murthy saying that even for Indus, which has “a high proportion of single-tenant towers recently rolled out for LTE coverage, Vi offers a profitable second tenancy and loading revenues that should keep the terms of trade in the telco’s favour”.

Vodafone Idea (Vi) should clear all of Indus Towers' past dues, else the struggling telco won't be allowed to use the tower company's infrastructure for any new services such as 5G, Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Mittal said. Airtel is the largest stakeholder in Indus Towers, with around 48% stake.