Globalite is now accessable on your mobile

EVENTS

Antarjyot - Teacher Training program for Mumbai and Navi Mumbai

Teacher Training program for Mumbai and Navi Mumbai region was held on 26th and 27th July at Mahape Facility. About fifty teachers from Vashi, Khopar kairne,JNPT ,Kalyan including a night school of Vashi participated in the workshop. Teachers and HOIs felt that the workshop was meaningful because it further empowered them to be better teachers and also enabled them to find solutions to many of their issues through meaningful discussions. The second part of the workshop will be held in the month of may.

Award Distribution at Mahape - Passion for Action

INDUSTRY NEWS

Government making effort to challenge TDSAT order on 3G roaming - BGR.in Captured on: 31 Jul 2014 10:23

Government is making efforts to challenge telecom tribunal TDSAT’s judgment that held 3G roaming pacts between operators valid, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has said.

“Efforts are being made to challenge the said order in Supreme Court,” Prasad said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha. He was replying to a question if TDSAT has granted permission to certain top mobile operators to continue with 3G intra-circle roaming (ICR) pact and provide roaming services to their customers. The Minister said that TDSAT in its judgment on April 29 in two sets of petitions, one involving Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Aircel and Tata Teleservices and other involving Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular held the 3G ICR arrangement does not violate any provision of their permits.

The judgement of Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal overturned government’s ban on offering 3G mobile services beyond their licensed zones through roaming pacts. ”The tribunal also quashed all the orders passed by the DoT to impose penalties,” Prasad said. The judgment brought relief to three operators, Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular, which jointly faced a penalty of Rs 1,200 crore for entering into pacts with each other to offer 3G services in regions where they did not win spectrum in the 2010 auction.

Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular won 3G spectrum in 2010 auction. Airtel won 3G spectrum in 13 out of 22 telecom service area for Rs 12,295.46, Vodafone in nine circles for Rs 11,617.86 and Idea Cellular in 11 circles for Rs 5,768.59 crore. DoT issued notice to Airtel, Vodafone and Idea on December 23, 2011 asking companies to stop 3G ICR within 24 hours and report compliance but the order was challenged by telecom operators. Tata Teleservices and Aircel too had signed 3G ICR but immediately called off their agreement after DoT issued notice to them.

Following the TDSAT judgment the Airtel, Vodafone and Idea have extended service under their 3G ICR at pan-India level except Odisha. Reliance Communications also entered in similar agreement with Tata Teleservices to provide 3G services in Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and UP-East telecom Circles.

Airtel may hike call rates; Sell towers in Africa- BGR.in Captured on: 31 Jul 2014 10:42

Telecom major Bharti Airtel yesterday indicated that it may cut down on discounts it offers on mobile call rates to push revenue from voice services.

“There might be ups and downs in certain quarters, but the long-term secular opportunity for raising voice realization remains, given the significant gap between headline tariff and the realized rates or in other words discounted tariffs,” Bharti Airtel’s Managing Director and CEO (India and South Asia) Gopal Vittal said. The first quarter has witnessed a historic trend of softening volumes with respect to voice call segment, he said in the company’s earnings call today. ”I will not comment on how it will play up within a given quarter, but what I will say is from longer term basis there is still opportunity to raise voice realisation,” Vittal said.

Airtel has reported 60.9 percent rise in consolidated net profit to Rs 1,108 crore for the first quarter of current fiscal ended June 30, 2014 on higher growth from mobile data business. The voice calls accounted for about 72 percent of company’s mobile revenue in India during the reported quarter. The company’s total revenue rose 13.3 percent to Rs 22,962 crore in the reported quarter as compared to Rs 20,264 crore in the corresponding period Though Airtel charges charges 2 paisa per second under headline tariff–call rates without discount– its financial statement for April-June showed that it realized only 38.08 paise from a minute long call.

Airtel also indicated that the company will divest telecom towers in Africa but is looking for suitable deal. ”In general, your direction in thought is right. What applies to one country in terms of strategy of letting an expert of tower company to handle assets, energy management associated with it, that thought is uniform across all countries,” Airtel’s Group Treasurer Harjeet Kohli said in reply to expectation of sale of all mobile towers in Africa.

Airtel sold 3,100 telecom towers in four African countries to Helios Towers Africa for an undisclosed sum. The company is now left with about 12,000 mobile towers in Africa. ”From our perspective, we will be able to look at other countries, the relevant potential partners in due course of time. At this stage we cant’t say whether it is a two-month activity or 12 months activity,” Kohli said. The company used proceeds from Helios Towers in lowering its debt burden and operational expenses.

The net debt on the company at the end of first quarter stood at Rs 57,744.3 crore. Vittal appreciated recent recommendation of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on spectrum sharing, but said that certain issued needs to be resolved like point to restrict sharing of frequecies in same band.

“As we go forward, I think, if you are restricting sharing within a band then that could potentially become a constraint because actually 3G can be delivered both in 2100 Mhz as well as 900 Mhz. Similarly, 2G and 4G both can be delivered in 1800 Mhz. So, it cant be within a band sharing,” Vittal said.

The company has announced that it will spend between $2.2-2.4 billion this fiscal in capital expenditure and $800 million out of this has been earmarked for Africa. Airtel will invest the amount in mainly enhancing its 3G coverage and 4G service roll out. The company had over 20.94 crore mobile subscribers at the end of June, 2014 of which 3.93 crore customers subscribed to its mobile internet services as well in India. The overall subscribers base of the Airtel has crossed 30 crore in the ongoing quarter.

GLOBAL NEWS