Uninor takes to the tuktuk for mobile phone distribution
You think of a rickshaw driver as someone who ferries you from place to place, right? And the newspaper delivery man is simply the chap who brings you the morning rag. Think again.
Uninor, the Indian arm of Norwegian telecom Telenor, has become the first company to use tuktuk drivers to reach its customers. Newspaper delivery-wallas and milkmen will be next. Continue reading »
Indian telcos: BSNL cries foul
No-one likes the feeling of being ganged up on.
State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has filed an affidavit with the Supreme Court of India accusing Airtel, Idea Cellular and Vodafone of colluding during bidding for 3G spectrum licences, in yet another addition to the long-running saga over sharing arrangements between telcos. Continue reading »
Bharti Airtel ups presence in Uganda with Warid acquisition
Bharti Airtel, the world’s fourth largest mobile services provider by subscribers, announced on Tuesday that it is set to buy Warid Telecom Uganda, the Ugandan business of Abu Dhabi-based Warid Telecom.
The Indian service provider is already Uganda’s second largest mobile phone operator with 4.6m customers. And by adding Warid’s 2.8m customers, it will be raise its market share to over 39 per cent. Continue reading »
Piramal to sell out of Vodafone India
Vodafone India can’t seem to catch a break. Licence rows, tax arguments – and now Piramal Group, the Indian conglomerate, has announced it is planning to sell its 11 per cent stake in the telecoms company.
The deal may not be a surprise to the company, but it hardly helps confidence. Continue reading »
Bharti Airtel: licence to roam (for now)
A little temporary relief in the Indian telecoms sector.
Shares in Bharti Airtel picked up on Monday afternoon, correcting much of the morning’s loss, after Delhi’s High Court ruled that the Indian telecoms company can continue – for now – offering 3G service in regions where it doesn’t have its own airwaves until May 8. Continue reading »
RCom / Batelco: deal or no deal?
Shares in Reliance Communications are swinging around a fair bit at the moment. The stock dropped 2.5 per cent on Friday to reach Rs66.50 by 12.30pm, partially correcting a 5.6 per cent gain in the previous session.
One big reason: reports that Batelco, the Bahrain telecoms group, is planning to buy a stake in Reliance Globalcom. The deal makes sense – but investors can’t seem to work out if it will happen or not. Continue reading »
Bharti Airtel shares up on satellite stake sale report
Shares in Bharti Airtel jumped 1.5 per cent Rs 325 at Friday’s opening after reports in the local media that the fast-growing Indian telecoms group is considering selling off up to 25 per cent of its satellite business.
The share price then fell back to Rs322.95 by 3pm in Mumbai, a 0.9 per cent gain over the day, as the company declined to confirm whether a deal is on the cards.
Indian telecoms: the saga rolls on
Another auction, another disappointment for India’s Department of Telecommunications.
A second round of 2G auctions was scheduled for March 11 but when the “List of Applicants” was published this week, it didn’t actually qualify as a list. Only one possible bidder signed up. Continue reading »
Bharti Infratel IPO: is OK good enough?
India’s biggest initial public offering for two years has proved to be a modest success, with Bharti Infratel raising around $764m from the sale of 189m shares that closed on Friday.
At Rs210 ($3.83) a share for retail investors and Rs220 for investment funds, the pricing of the company – which operates telecoms towers for Bharti Airtel, India’s largest mobile phone provider – fell at the lower end of the Rs210-240 indicative range. Continue reading »
Bharti Infratel IPO: big test for market sentiment
Tuesday will see one of India’s largest IPOs for years, as Bharti Infratel, the telecoms tower arm of Bharti Airtel, seeks to raise $715m.
With regulatory flip-flop reducing confidence in a debt-mired telecoms industry and the Indian government relaunching its privatisation programme to reduce the budget deficit, all eyes are on tomorrow’s IPO as a measure of market sentiment. Continue reading »
Indian telecom: light at tunnel’s end?
On the face of it seems an unlikely question. But in the the aftermath of a bungled spectrum auction, and with India’s telecoms operators facing what could be their weakest quarterly revenue performance in three years, might the worst actually be over for the beleaguered sector?
The market seems to think so. Bharti Airtel, the nation’s largest operator by revenue, has seen its stock rise by more than 10 per cent since the day 1 of the auctions last Monday, after which it was clear the contest would be exactly the type of damp squib most analysts expected. Continue reading »
India’s telecoms auction: failing to plug the fiscal gap
India’s latest 2G telecoms auction was, as beyondbrics reported, a giant flop – it raised barely a quarter of what the government had forecast, as operators balked at what they felt were sky-high reserve prices.
Ratings agencies Fitch and Standard & Poor’s have both threatened sovereign credit downgrades if India doesn’t get its fiscal house in order, and the $7.3bn the government had been planning to raise through the auction was meant to be, at least partly, a measure of its ability to close up its massive fiscal deficit – estimated to be around 5.9 per cent of GDP. Continue reading »
Telenor: the biggest bidder in Indian telecoms auction
Norway’s Telenor emerged on Wednesday as the biggest buyer in India’s controversial mobile telecom spectrum auction. Continue reading »
Corporate watch: Micromax aiming to be something for somebody
A cell phone that runs for thirty days on a single charge. A smartphone with a Siri-like voice-recognition system that retails for around $100. A touchscreen phone with an 8 megapixel camera for less than $250.
These are but a few of the innovations Micromax, India’s largest domestic mobile phone and tablet maker by market share, has released in the four years it has been in the industry. The privately-held company specialises in simple-but-effective products targeted to its lower- and middle-income customers in India’s smaller cities. Continue reading »
India: Vodafone tax row hit bilateral investment treaty talks
It looks like India’s controversial decision to retrospectively tax Vodafone to the tune of $2.2bn may result in more than just sternly-worded comments from the likes of George Osborne and Timothy Geithner.
New Delhi’s plans for strengthening economic ties with key partners through new bilateral investment treaties are being put on hold – starting with Canada, whose prime minister Stephen Harper is visiting the sub-continent this week. Continue reading »
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