Mumbai: Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea shares fell in morning trade Wednesday, a day after market leader Reliance Jio announced a push to capture a greater portion of the postpaid market through new plans.
Vodafone Idea was down 1.37% at late morning trade at Rs 6.48 while Airtel fell 1.85% to Rs 757.55. Sensex was up 0.43% during this time at Rs 58,150.98.
In a push to expand its postpaid base, Jio Tuesday announced two new individual and family postpaid plans starting at Rs 299 and Rs 399 respectively Tuesday evening. In a marked move to attract customers from Airtel and Vi, post-paid users porting out of other carriers do not need to pay any security deposit.
Additionally, all new postpaid users of Jio are offered a free one-month trial under the new plans.
Jio’s new family plans allow users to add up to three extra sim cards to the plan, each at a cost of Rs 99. So utilizing all three add-on sims, the cost of the base family plan adds up to Rs 696.
Vi’s basic plan (without premium entertainment benefits) costs Rs 699 for two connections while Airtel’s basic plan is priced at Rs 999 for 4 connections.
The new Jio plans also offer additional benefits like choice of number, in-flight connectivity on international flights, a common international roaming plan for 129 countries, voice over Wi-Fi calling to India from overseas at Rs 1 and priority call back service.
“Jio has further strengthened its network experience by expanding True 5G to 331 cities. After having serviced over 430 million customers, that includes millions of satisfied postpaid users, there cannot be a more opportune time to welcome millions of new postpaid customers,” said Akash M Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited.
Jio’s premium family post-paid plan – priced at Rs 699 – also includes Netflix and Amazon Prime subscriptions. Including the additional sims, the plan would cost Rs 996.Airtel offers comparable add-on sims (a total of four connections) and premium entertainment for Rs 1199 while Vi offers the same at Rs 999.
All Jio’s latest postpaid plans are eligible for a 5G upgrade through the Jio Welcome Offer, under which the telco offers 5G services to users who apply for them.
While Airtel started the rollout of its 5G services in tandem with Jio, Vodafone Idea is yet to announce the same, making its premium customers more vulnerable to poaching by Jio analysts said.
“In our view, such conditions will only favour ILDOs with big pockets as they would have financial backing to acquire stake and own subsea assets. It may lead to a monopoly in the ILDO-CLS segment,” Vi said.
TAIPEI: Taiwan is scrambling to secure its communications with the outside world against an attack by China, but even in peacetime cannot quickly repair critical undersea internet cables and lacks suitable satellite backups, experts and officials say.
China, which has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, has ramped up military and political efforts to force the democratically governed island to accept its sovereignty.
The Ukraine war has lent new urgency to Taiwan’s efforts to bolster its security, especially against Chinese cyber attacks or attempts to sever any of 14 cables that connect it to the global internet.
“Strategic communications, internally and externally, is what keeps us up at night, particularly in the aftermath of Ukraine,” said Tzeng Yisuo, an analyst at Taiwan’s top military think tank, the Institute for National Defence and Security Research.
Taiwan has zeroed in on low-Earth orbit satellites as a solution, and has launched a two-year trial programme to boost internet services by leaning on international satellite providers.
Taiwan’s total satellite bandwidth is about 0.02% of what its undersea cables provide, according to Kenny Huang, chief executive at Taiwan Network Information Center, the island’s internet domain manager.
Huang said Taiwan has struggled to attract interest from international satellite companies because of strict regulations on ownership, which limit foreign shares to a maximum of 49%, and a lack of financial sweeteners.
“There’s little incentive for them (foreign companies),” he said. “Regulations must be changed.”
Defence experts say that although Taiwan can draw lessons from Ukraine’s use of Starlink, a satellite network developed by Elon Musk‘s U.S.-based space exploration company SpaceX, they worry about relying on a commercial actor with business interests in China.
“Elon Musk, we are not certain if he cares more about China’s market,” Tzeng said, referring to Tesla‘s sales in China. “We won’t put all our eggs in one basket.”
Taiwan does not own any Starlink terminals. SpaceX did not respond to a request for comment.
Taiwan is also strengthening the resilience of wartime communication channels for top commanders, including the president, according to one senior government official and another person familiar with government efforts.
“We are taking notes from Zelenskiy,” a senior Taiwan security official said, referring to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s strong presence on social media.
Taiwan’s Ministry of Digital Affairs said in a statement that it would prioritise Taiwan’s offshore islands for the satellite trial programme and would further increase the bandwidth for microwave communications with outlying islands by year-end. The ministry did not comment on sea cables or repairing them.
SECURING UNDERSEA CABLES
Taiwan’s vulnerability was thrown into focus last month when the two undersea cables connecting the Taiwan-controlled Matsu islands, which sit close to the Chinese coast, were cut, disconnecting the 14,000 people who live there from the internet.
Authorities said that their initial findings show a Chinese fishing vessel and a Chinese freighter caused the disruption, but that there was no evidence Beijing deliberately tampered with the cables. China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Chunghwa Telecom switched on a backup microwave system that transmits signals from the top of a mountain in Taipei to Matsu, but that only restored about 5% of the bandwidth that the cables had provided.
This month, the government upgraded the system and internet speed significantly improved. But because there are few cable repair ships in the region, residents must wait until late April for internet access to be fully restored.
A senior Taiwan official familiar with security matters said that sea cable vulnerability has long been a national security concern, and that it was “ridiculous” so little progress had been made to address the issue. The person declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the matter.
“We can’t even fix sea cables on our own,” the official said.
Lii Wen, who leads the Matsu branch of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party, described the February outage as a “warning” to Taiwan.
“Today, it’s Matsu’s sea cables that broke,” he said. “What if one day all 14 of Taiwan’s undersea cables connecting us to the outside world break? Will we be adequately prepared?”
China will probably take aim at Taiwan’s sea cables or the cable landing stations before an all-out attack, experts say, a move that would cause panic, paralyse commercial activity, and help Beijing gain control over the international narrative.
China’s Taiwan Affairs Office did not respond to a request for comment.
Taiwan’s military has long prepared back-up plans, including a fibre-optic network for communications within Taiwan, satellites, high-frequency radio, and microwave systems.
The impact on civilians would be severe regardless, and authorities are reinforcing Taiwan’s four entry points for international sea cables and running more frequent war simulations involving them, Huang said.
“In a state of emergency, people will want to get information,” said Chieh Chung, a military researcher at the National Policy Foundation, a Taipei-based think tank. “If they can’t get information, people’s panic will spread.”
Cutting off communications and causing chaos would not be the only military effects of severing the cables, Huang said. Taiwan might find it difficult to calibrate a response to such a move that an aggressor couldn’t use to justify an all-out attack.
“So the first step (for China) – with about 99 percent likelihood – is to cut our sea cables,” Huang said.
FILE – Ryan Reynolds arrives at the 36th annual American Cinematheque Awards, Nov. 17, 2022, at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, Calif. U.S. wireless carrier T-Mobile announced Wednesday, March 15, 2023, that it is buying prepaid wireless brand Mint Mobile, in which actor Ryan Reynolds is a part owner, as part of a cash-and-stock deal worth up to $1.35 billion. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
Telecom operator T-Mobile US Inc said on Wednesday it will acquire Ka’ena Corp, the owner of Ryan Reynolds-backed budget wireless provider Mint Mobile, for as much as $1.35 billion.
The pay-as-you-go segment is estimated to see a higher number of subscribers as credit-challenged customers shy away from hefty monthly bills.
T-Mobile said it will fund the deal with 39% cash and 61% stock to acquire Ka’ena. The final price to be paid will depend on Ka’ena’s performance during certain periods before and after the closing.
The deal also includes Ka’ena’s Ultra Mobile wireless unit that offers international calling services, as well as wholesaler Plum.
Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Police’s Cyber Crime headquarters has blocked about 8,000 SIM cards that were in use in the state’s Gwalior-Chambal region to commit cyber frauds across the country. The SIM cards were in use in nearly 35 villages and police identified at least 100 alleged criminals involved in cyber frauds, sources informed.
The understaffed state cyber cell is currently grappling with over 90,000 cyber complaints that they have received in the last few months. The number had increased manifold post- Covid-19 outbreak.
Additional director general of police (ADGP) Yogesh Deshmukh said that their teams had noticed multiple uses of the same International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) number (a unique 15-digit code that identifies a device). Cyber frauds were frequently changing their SIM to make a call and inserting a new SIM in the same phone to make the next call. He informed that a fine of Rs 1.83 lakh was imposed on a telecom company for negligence in blocking suspected 583 suspicious SIM cards. Another telecom company had blocked more than 8,000 suspicious SIMs.
The cyber police had sent a list of more than 21,000 suspicious numbers to two telecom companies in 2020. These numbers were identified based on in-depth analysis by the cyber police, Gwalior.
ADG Deshmukh said that in the year 2020, state cyber zone Gwalior had received a complaint related to fraud of Rs 1,75,000 in the name of selling cars by giving fake advertisements on social media with fake SIM and fake payment wallet accounts issued from Shivpuri and Guna districts of Madhya Pradesh.
Superintendent of Police of cyber zone Gwalior, Sudhir Agarwal, and his team conducted a thorough and meticulous investigation of the case. Legal action was taken against eight accused involved in issuing fake SIMs and creating fake wallet accounts. But along with this, more than 20,000 suspicious mobile numbers were also identified from the analysis of the data received in the case and a list of these was sent to the concerned service providers for verification. In March 2022, 7,948 SIMs of a telecom company were blocked. Later, 239 other SIMs were blocked by the same company.
But in the re-verification by the second telecom company, no action was taken stating that all the SIMs were found genuine. State Cyber Police then approached DG Telecom and provided sufficient evidence. After this the CAFs were re-examined by the Telecom Officer and resultantly, 583 SIMs were blocked and a fine of Rs.1,83,000/- has also been imposed on the concerned telecom company.
While a maximum of six SIM cards can be issued on a single identity proof, in several cases, over a dozen cards were procured, sources informed. The modus operandi is such that –one person arranges for SIM cards using fake documents, the second gets bank accounts and payment applications linked to these SIM cards, the third uses another SIM card to call and dupe potential targets, while the fourth withdraws the money. The offenders mostly target people living far away to evade arrest, officials informed.
Islamabad: China’s Sunwalk Group intends to invest USD 2 billion in Cash-Strapped Pakistan’s telecom sector for the deployment of an optical fiber network, Business Recorder reported.
The deployment of an optical fiber network will cover an area of 100,000 km over a period of time in Pakistan.
A high-level delegation of the Sunwalk Group led by chairman HOU called on Pakistan’s Minister for IT and Telecom Syed Aminul Haque on Tuesday.
Sunwalk (Pvt) Ltd, is a telecom and technology-based multinational private Chinese enterprise that has developed multiple telecoms, and communication infrastructure projects in China and has acquired the TIP License in Pakistan, reported Business Recorder.
The company started deployment and invested about USD 5 million and has the plan to deploy 5,000 km OFC as the next step, according to Business Recorder.
In the meeting, Pakistan’s minister briefed the delegation that consultation with the Ministry of Railways and Highways Authority is ongoing regarding the Right of Way to laying OFC. He assured all obstacles in this regard will be removed soon.
HOU said that they have a longstanding relationship with Pakistan and also provide services to different sectors.
Beijing’s actions are proving that China and Pakistan are all-weather friends. As reported earlier, the Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) approved the rollover of USD 1.3 billion facilities for Pakistan.
Taking to Twitter, Pakistan Finance Minister Ishaq Dar announced, “Formalities completed [and] Chinese Bank, ICBC approved rollover of USD 1.3 billion facilities which has been repaid by Pakistan to ICBC in recent months.”
He further said that the facility would be disbursed in three installments, and the first one of USD 500 million has been received by the State Bank of Pakistan.
He added, “It will increase forex reserves!”
Pakistan is currently facing growing economic challenges, with high inflation, sliding forex reserves, a widening current account deficit, and a depreciating currency, reported Geo News.
Foreign exchange reserves were at USD 3.8 billion as of February 24, just enough for less than a month of imports. While the liquid foreign exchange reserves stand at around USD 9 billion which includes USD 5.5 billion in net reserves held by commercial banks.
Thiruvananthapuram: The accused in the BSNL Engineers Cooperative Society fraud bought properties worth crores of rupees using the money swindled from depositors. All the 11 accused in the case have bought properties in city and rural limits of Thiruvananthapuram and neighbouring districts, said Sajad, DSP, investigating officer.
The crime branch special investigation team probing the case received the information about the properties while interrogating the former president of the society AR Gopinathan Nair, who was arrested a few days back from Kottarakkara by the crime branch.
The cooperative department has already attached properties owned by Gopinathan Nair, and the crime branch team is on a mission to identify all the properties registered in their names and benami names to initiate proceedings to attach them as well.
Gopinathan Nair is being questioned by the crime branch and the probe team will move a custody application to take PR Moorthi, who was the member of the directors’ board of the society and also the former deputy general manager of BSNL, into custody. On Tuesday night Moorthi was arrested and the probe team believes that Moorthi might have played a key role along with Nair in the fraud. The former secretary of the society and former post divisional engineer of BSNL KV Pradeep was also arrested earlier.
So far, three people were arrested over the fraud and eight others are still absconding. The bail applications of all the accused have been rejected by the court.
“The fraud worth crores of rupees was an organised crime committed by the accused as they violated the established legal framework of an organisation. The investigation has been progressing and there could be more accused in the case,” said Sajad.
Hundreds of people have lost lakhs of rupees deposited at the society. In the inquiry conducted by the cooperative department, a fraud worth Rs 44 crore was reported and the cooperative registrar sent a request to the city police commissioner demanding to conduct a probe after registering a case.
French telecoms group Iliad on Thursday reported a 10% jump in annual sales, boosted by investments in 4G and 5G and expansion in Poland.
Telecom firms across Europe have been making early forays in what could be a new wave of sector consolidation, with operators facing costly investments to expand fibre networks and roll out 5G services.
Iliad, which operates in France, Italy and Poland, posted revenue of 8.4 billion euros ($8.9 billion) for 2022, compared with 7.6 billion a year earlier.
“We are the telecom operator with the highest organic growth in Europe,” CEO Thomas Reynaud said in a conference call. He added Iliad’s “massive investments” in 4G and 5G and the expansion beyond its historical borders were paying off.
In Poland, where it last year bought broadband operator UPC from Liberty Global, Iliad gained 687,000 new subscribers.
“The completion of the deal between Play and UPC that will lead to the creation of a FiberCo, expected in early 2023, will allow us to accelerate the expansion of this market,” it said.
Iliad added 862,000 subscribers in its home market France. In Italy, it finished the year as the market’s leading recruiter with 1.06 million new mobile subscribers.
The company, which billionaire Xavier Niel took private two years ago, has been making deals to extend its fibre offer in Italy to tap into the demand for ultra-fast connections. In January, it finalised a joint venture deal with Italy’s Windtre to manage their networks in less densely populated areas.
Its earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation and amortisation after leases (EBITDAAL) rose 12% to 3.3 billion euros in 2022.
Iliad did not give a detailed outlook but said it was confident about 2023 following last year’s good momentum and despite the uncertain economic environment.
New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) plans to extend a pilot project by state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to provide fibre-to-home (FTTH) broadband connections in rural areas to cover 500,000 households amid strong response from consumers.
The pilot started in October last year was meant to provide wired broadband connections to 100,000 rural households, but nearly 200,000 connections have already been provided under the scheme due to demand, a DoT official said. “We are seeking the approval from DCC (Digital Communications Commission) to expand the project to 500,000 connections.”
DCC, which is the highest decision-making body of DoT, is likely to approve the scheme at its meeting scheduled for March 20, the official said.
The government is utilising BharatNet optical fibre network in collaboration with BSNL to provide the connections. “Such kind of arrangement benefits both BSNL as well as utilisation of BharatNet,” the official told ET.
The BSNL FTTH connections will be offered in areas where BharatNet fibre rollout has been completed.
So far, 198,408 gram panchayats have been connected through the BharatNet project and 613,868 km of optic fibre cable have been laid.
This is the latest instance of the government trying to utilise and monetise BharatNet fibre even as efforts to bring in private investment and partners for the project are yet to succeed.
An official said if BSNL succeeds in using the BharatNet fibre, it will give a positive signal to the private players also.
The government is also working on a revised public-private partnership (PPP) strategy for the BharatNet project, the second official said.
A PPP model floated in 2021 for BharatNet had failed as no bids were received even though the government had engaged with private players, including telecom operators and internet service providers.
The project will provide 4G mobile services in 24,680 uncovered villages in remote and difficult areas across the country including the uncovered villages of Maharashtra.
As per industry officials, some of the terms and conditions of the tender were too onerous for them while the revenue-sharing model proposed by the government also made no business sense. The industry’s call to the government to relax certain conditions was not answered, following which most of the players decided to stay away.As per the government, utilisation of BharatNet network is being done through leasing bandwidth and dark fibre to provide last-mile connectivity to offer broadband internet services through FTTH as well as via Wi-Fi in public places.
As part of the project, broadband services must be provided through Wi-Fi and FTTH at government institutions such as schools, hospitals, post offices, anganwadis, police stations, etc.
BharatNet project was initially planned to connect all the 250,000 gram panchayats in the country, but later, the mandate was extended to connect all the 600,000 villages with a completion timeline as 2025.
The Center for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) have developed an indigenous 4G/5G technology stack. The Proof of Concept of C-DoT’s 4G technology stack has been successfully carried out in the BSNL network.
The Redmi Fire TV comes with a 32-inch screen size and will go on sale from March 21 on Amazon and Mi website.
The smart TV features in-built Alexa and Dolby Audio. Xiaomi is providing the a voice remote with Amazon Alexa functionality. For audio, it gets 20W speakers.
The Redmi Smart Fire TV is powered by a 64-bit quad-core processor and Mali G31 MP2 GPU. It is an HD-ready smart TV, powered by what Xiaomi calls the ‘Vivid Picture Engine’ technology.
The smart TV supports all major OTT streaming applications such as Netflix, Prime Video, Hotstar, and JioCinema.
Its connectivity features include dual-band Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 5.0, HDMI ports, 2 USB ports, and an AV and earphone port.
“Jio has further strengthened its network experience by expanding True 5G to 331 cities. After having serviced over 430 million customers, that includes millions of satisfied postpaid users, there cannot be a more opportune time to welcome millions of new postpaid customers,” said Akash M Ambani, Chairman, Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited.
IT hardware manufacturers such as Foxconn, HP and Dixon Technologies have urged the government to drop the fresh investment clause proposed in the revised production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme being prepared for the industry. They reasoned that most manufacturers have slack capacities that first need to be used up before committing to expansion at a time when global PC and tablet sales have been steadily declining.
At a meeting earlier this month, officials of the ministry of electronics and information technology (MeitY) had insisted on including the investment clause, to keep it in line with PLI schemes in other categories.
They sought assurances from the industry to meet the proposed targets, said people with knowledge of the matter.
Attendees included Foxconn unit Rising Star (Bharat FIH), HP, Dixon Technologies, Infopower Technologies, Bhagwati Products (Micromax), the Manufacturers Association of Information Technology (MAIT), and the India Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA).
“We have requested the government to delink investments from incentives,” said an industry executive aware of the matter.
“However, all other PLI schemes have that component linked to benefits, so the government is finding it difficult to create a separate mechanism for this particular scheme,” said the executive.
The executive said that 80% of the discussions on the revised schemes are done, but the investment clause is proving to be a stumbling block.
Rising Star, HP, Dixon, Infopower, and Bhagwati did not respond to queries.
ET reported in September that the government had proposed to increase the IT hardware PLI scheme’s outlay by nearly three times to Rs 20,000 crore from Rs 7,325 crore previously, and double the incentive rate to 4-5.75% over six years from 1-4% over four years in the previous draft. The revised corpus is yet to be finalised with some expecting it to be around Rs 17,000 crore.
The first version of the scheme had failed to take off, with only two-three companies out of the eligible 14 expected to meet their first-year targets. The firms blamed inadequate sops and continuing supply chain issues besides chip shortages for hurting their local manufacturing plans.
However, even under the revised scheme, the government has kept the conditions to avail of the scheme’s benefits the same as before. Among them is the investment criterion. This requires investment of Rs 500 crore from global firms and Rs 50 crore from local players over six years.
IDC India estimates worldwide PC shipments declined 16.5% in 2022. To be sure, the market in India grew marginally, by 0.3%, in 2022 to 14.9 million units, on account of strong double-digit growth in the first half of the year, partly offset by a steep decline in the second half.
“That is the basic apprehension before committing to investments, along with concerns over a global slowdown in PC sales,” an executive said. “The slowdown in spending on PCs and tablets which spiked during the pandemic means that companies will find it tough to justify adding more capacity.”
According to industry estimates, the total existing capacity for IT hardware manufacturing (desktops, laptops, and workstations) stood at around 6 million units annually. India imported around 97 million IT hardware units in FY22, down 15% from the year before as per industry estimates. IT hardware exports stood at a paltry 95,000 units in FY22, down 16% from the year before.
Industry executives say manufacturers will automatically increase capacity if there is enough demand but can’t be forced to do so when it doesn’t make business sense.
Many of the manufacturers are not looking at exports because their factories in China, Thailand, Vietnam and elsewhere are able to do so more cheaply due to the presence of a component ecosystem, said an executive. This narrows the addressable market for the manufacturers.
The government also cleared incentives for component makers AT&S (Rs7.58 crore), Shogini (Rs3 crore) and Alcon Electronics (Rs2.40 crore).
Some among the industry want the revised scheme to be delayed until demand picks up and the local manufacturing ecosystem develops.
The government is trying to address that by proposing that companies can start claiming benefits any time within the first three years after the scheme is notified. IDC expects the PC market to return to growth in late 2023 with the overall market following in 2024.
Unlike the mobile manufacturing ecosystem, which was at a fairly advanced stage before the PLI scheme kicked in, that for laptops and tablets is not in place, an executive said.
The localisation schedules the government has included in the revised draft will require setting up a component ecosystem. That hasn’t happened due to the ITA-1 agreement, to which India is a signatory. The World Trade Organization (WTO) pact allows import of IT hardware duty free. As a result, there’s no incentive for IT hardware brands to set up a manufacturing base in India, said the first executive cited above.
The revised draft states that to claim the 4% incentive, manufacturers will have to source printed circuit boards domestically. In the second year, batteries must be sourced locally. In the third, fourth and fifth years, manufacturers will have to source power modules, and the cabinet or chassis locally.
“Component makers are not necessarily the assembler, and the assemblers are not making the sub-assembly,” the executive said. “As a result, the component and sub-assembly makers will also need some sort of incentives to start making in India. We will require a separate PLI for the IT hardware component ecosystem.”
