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Loop Tele plans to outsource $400 million IT deals(for system integration and maintenance of information technology systems across 22 cellular circles)
August 31
Loop Telecom Ltd (LTL) is planning to outsource its information technology (IT) projects, worth $400 million, spread over 10 years, which includes system integration and maintenance of IT systems across 22 cellular circles. LTL has shortlisted IBM, Wipro Technologies Ltd and Tech Mahindra for awarding the project. LTL provides telecom services across India except in Mumbai circle, which is provided by Loop Mobile (earlier BPL Mobile). The IT contracts from LTL will not include services for Loop Mobile or for the company's business process outsourcing (BPO) services, which are presently serviced by Aegis BPO of the Essar Group. LTL had recently launched services in Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa and Tamil Nadu. The Essar Group holds a stake in LTL.
Source: Economic Times
AT&T in talks to invest in BSNL (as it seeks to re-enter India, the world's fastest- growing telecom market)
August 31
Telecom major AT&T of USA is in talks with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for acquiring a stake in the company as it seeks to re-enter India, the world's fastest-growing telecom market. BSNL has conveyed to AT&T that the decision of investment or stake sale can only be taken by the Government of India. BSNL's total net worth has been estimated at Rs. 810 billion based on the balance sheet of the company for 2007-2008.
Source: Economic Times
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RCOM unit in pact with S TEL (Reliance Infratel intends to launch GSM services in six circles)
August 29
Reliance Infratel has signed an agreement with S Tel for sharing passive telecom infrastructure. The company is a subsidiary of Reliance Communications (RCom). Reliance Infratel intends to launch GSM services in Orissa, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, North- East, Assam and Kashmir circles.
Source: Business Line
Govt plans to sell its 30 % stake in Bharti Hexacom (to invite technical and financial bids for stake sale)
August 28
Government of India plans to sell its 30 percent stake in Bharti Hexacom Ltd (BHL). It owns the stake through Telecom Consultants of India Ltd (TCIL) that operates in Rajasthan and north-eastern circles. Bharti Airtel holds 70 percent stake in BHL. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs has approved the sale proposal of TCIL as it is not comfortable with Bharti Airtel. TCIL will call for technical and financial bids for stake sale. The Government had rejected the proposal of Bharti Airtel to acquire 30 percent stake of TCIL in BHL for Rs. 2.6 billion as the offer price was considered low.
Source: Financial Express
RCOM, China Telecom launch terrestrial cable (to provide an alternative route for telecommunications connectivity)
August 27
Reliance Communications (RCom) and China Telecom have launched a terrestrial cable connecting East Asia with the Indian subcontinent. The cross-border cable is likely to provide an alternative route for telecommunications connectivity between India, China, Hong Kong and Far East Asia. The cable would cater to the voice, data and video connectivity requirements of over 2.2 billion citizens of India and China. The terabit capacity cable is laid between Siliguri in India and Yadong in China through Nathu La.
Source: Business Standard
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 Airtel launches Mcommerce (which operates on the voice or the interactive voice response platform)
August 27
Bharti Airtel has launched its mobile commerce (m-commerce) service called `mChek on Airtel', which operates on the voice or the interactive voice response (IVR) platform. The new service enables the customers to pay their Airtel mobile/fixed-line bills and recharge pre-paid cards and the Delhi-Gurgaon expressway toll tags through IVR.
Source: Economic Times
Tech Mahindra wins $500 million Swan tele deal (outbidding seven initial bidders that included Wipro Technologies Ltd, IBM and Emirates Telecommunications)
August 26
Tech Mahindra has bagged an outsourcing contract worth $500 million from Swan Telecom, outbidding seven initial bidders that included Wipro Technologies Ltd, IBM and Emirates Telecommunications (Etisalat). The end-to-end information technology (IT) deal is expected to be executed over ten years. Tech Mahindra decided to bid for the end-to-end IT contract independently after initially partnering networking equipment vendor, Ericsson, to execute the IT portion of the deal. Etisalat holds a 45 percent stake in Swan Telecom, which it acquired in 2008 for $900 million.
Source: Economic Times
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GTL infra, Essar in race for Aircel tower assets (Aircel Cellular's passive telecom infrastructure business is valued at about $2.5 billion)
August 22
GTL Infrastructure, Essar Infratel and Wireless Tata Telecom Infrastructure Ltd (WTTIL) have evinced interest in Aircel Cellular's passive telecom infrastructure business. The business is valued at about $2.5 billion. WTTIL and GTL Infrastructure are in advanced stages of the due diligence procedures to acquire the assets. WTTIL is a subsidiary of Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), in which Quippo Telecom Infrastructure, the telecom tower subsidiary of SREI Infrastructure Finance, holds 49 percent stake. Aircel Cellular plans to hive or sell of its towers in order to focus on its telecom services. The company has over 11,500 towers in the Southern and North-Eastern circles.
Source: Business Standard
Calling cards set to make talking cheaper (as companies with long-distance licences can market products such as pre-paid packages or calling cards directly)
August 21
The Department of Telecom (DOT), Government of India, has given its permission on 21 Aug 2009 to companies with long-distance licences to market products such as pre-paid packages or calling cards directly to the consumers. Companies with fibre networks such as PowerGrid, Cable & Wireless, British Telecom, SingTel, RailTel, GAIL (India) Ltd, Sify and Tulip Telecom can now carry long distance calls of operators. DOT's move is likely to help lower tariffs, especially for international subscriber dialling (ISD) calls and also for subscriber trunk dialling (STD). Globally, long-distance tariffs have reduced by 20-53 percent.
Source: Economic Times
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Telecom user base hits 479-million mark (following the addition of 14 million new subscribers in Jul 2009)
The Indian telecom industry has added 14 million new subscribers in Jul 2009 to raise the total number of phone connections, both mobile and landline, to 479.04 million. According to the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the industry had added over 12 million new users in Jun 2009. Mobile phone users accounted for 92 percent of the country's telephone base with 441.66 million connections, while total teledensity rose to 41.08 percent. For Jul 2009, the fixed line subscribers declined to 37.41 million users, while broadband users rose to 6.80 million (6.62 million). Bharti Airtel added 2.8 million new users to increase its tally to 105 million, while Reliance Communications Ltd added 2.3 million to record a total subscriber base (both CDMA and GSM) of 82 million subscribers.
Source: Economic Times
Progress Soft sees Biz in Airport upragadation telecom (it has invested $25 million in Hyderabad development centre)
August 20
Progress Software India, the domestic arm of Progress Software Corporation of the US, is tapping the Indian market with a focus on airport infrastructure and the telecom industry. The company specialises in development of service and data integration solutions. It has so far made investments of $25 million in its Hyderabad development centre. The company presently employs 145 personnel at Hyderabad and plans to increase the headcount by 50 percent in the next two years.
Source: Business Line
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Tata, Quippo merger complete (as per the original terms announced in Jan 2009)
August 19
Wireless Tata Telecom Infrastructure (WTTI) and Quippo Telecom Infrastructure Ltd (QTIL) have successfully completed the transaction of merging their tower businesses as per the original terms announced in Jan 2009. As per the merger agreement, QTIL is likely to pay Rs. 23 billion and transfer all its 5,000 telecom towers to WTTI, which already owns 13,000 telecom towers (as of Jan 2009). In exchange, QTIL is likely to get 49 percent stake and management control in the merged entity. QTIL is the telecom tower subsidiary of SREI Infrastructure Finance, while WTTI is the hived-off tower arm of telecom services provider, Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL). The new entity would now have over 18,000 telecom towers with an enterprise value of $2.6 billion.
Source: Economic Times
Bids open for BSNL optical fibre project (BSNL intends to buy 60,000 route kilometre of optical fibre cable)
August 18
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is expected to open the bids for the optical fibre cable project on 18 August 2009. The company intends to buy 60,000 route kilometre of optical fibre cable at a cost of Rs. 2.5 billion. Sterlite Industries, Surana Telecom, HFCL, Aksh Optic Fibre and Birla Ericsson are in the race for the project. Sterlite had bagged a similar contract from BSNL in Jul 2009.
Source: Business Line. Top
Idea celluar to hive off six overlapping Spice licenses (into two entities named Vitesse and Claridges Communications)
August 15
Idea Cellular had acquired Spice Communications in 2008. The company is now planning to hive off the six overlapping licences it inherited from Spice Communications into two entities i.e. demerge licences for Punjab and Karnataka into a company named Vitesse. Spice is already offering mobile phone services in these two circles; spin off the other four Spice licences in Delhi, Haryana, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, where Idea already operates, into an entity called Claridges Communications. Idea is likely to then finally sell Claridges Communications and Vitesse to other telecom operators looking to operate in the circles.
Source: Economic Times
Tower biz pays off for Telcos (generated about 7% of revenues for Bharti and Vodafone)
August 14
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar and Idea Cellular are benefiting from their joint venture infrastructure company called Indus Towers. Indus Towers generated about seven percent of revenues for Bharti and Vodafone and 6.4 percent for Idea Cellular in Apr- Jun 2009. Bharti and Vodafone hold 42 percent stake each in Indus, while the remaining 16 percent is held by Idea Cellular. Tata Teleservices (Maharashtra) Ltd has reported revenues of Rs164 million from passive infrastructure services (Rs. 140 million in Apr-Jun 2008). The company had hived off its passive infrastructure to its wholly-owned subsidiary, 21st Century Infra Tele. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has decided to outsource telecom infrastructure to generate about Rs10 billion in a year. The company has about 40,000 towers.
Source: Business Standard
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Third party to handle Bharti’s intercity cables (the project worth $500 million is expected to be completed over a five-year period)
August 12
Bharti Airtel Ltd (Airtel) has decided to outsource the management and maintenance of it's over 80,000 kilometres of inter-city optic fibre cable networks to a third party in order to cut costs and focus on being a pure-play telecom firm. The project worth $500 million is expected to be completed over a five-year period. Inter-city optic fibre cable networks or transmission networks carry voice and data traffic across India. Airtel is the largest telecom operator in India in terms of revenues and customers and also the largest carrier of voice and data traffic.
Source: Economic Times
YOU Telecom plans cyber cafes in tier II,III cities (YOU Telecom is the sixth largest telecom broadband provider in India)
August 12
YOU Telecom, the Citigroup-owned broadband service company, has plans to set up a chain of cyber cafes in non-metro cities in India. At present, YOU Telecom provides Internet bandwidth to 70 cyber cafes in the country's non-metro cities. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), YOU Telecom is the sixth largest telecom broadband provider in India with more than 1,00,000 subscribers.
Source: Business Line
Bharti eyes Millicoms Lanka unit (as part of its strategy to consolidate operations in Sri Lanka)
August 5
Telecom company Bharti Airtel had launched mobile services in Sri Lanka in 2008. It may bid for the Sri Lankan mobile network of Millicom as part of its strategy to consolidate operations in Sri Lanka. Millicom International, which is based in Luxembourg, has put up for sale its Asian operations across Cambodia, Laos and Sri Lanka. The Tigo network of Millicom is the third largest network in Sri Lanka with over two million customers and is estimated to be worth $150-200 million. Bharti is expected to put in a firm bid for the Sri Lankan operations of Millicom over the next couple of weeks.
Source: Economic Times.
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Vodafone : Sing Along
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