Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) said that it can roll out 5G for telcos across the globe any day. But right now, it is working on India specific stack for 5G. Kamal Bhadada, head for Communications and Information Services, TCS, told PTI that the company is already helping telecom operators across the globe in rolling out 5G networks. BSNL Working With TCS for 5G NSA It is worth noting that Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is working with TCS and C-DoT for rolling out an indigenous 5G enabled 4G network....

COAI Reaches Out to DoT to List Favourable Terms for 5G Rollout The letter was drafted by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) which represents telcos like Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and vendors like Cisco, Ciena, Huawei, Ericsson and Sterlite. To recall, the DoT has already invited the gear vendors and telecom operators to work together, do pilot testing of 5G network and come up with India centric use-cases by early 2019....

Telecom Operators tries to Lower the Liabilities Telecom operators have to pay massive AGR dues which will create enormous pressure on their financial credibility. Till now, Reliance Jio is the only telco which has paid their full AGR dues of Rs 195 crore. As per the words of analysts “the basis on which telcos are self-assessing their AGR dues is unknown. However, previous disputes and involvement of supreme court and government departments, the final call will be done by the supreme bench itself along with government officials decision....

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea Extended Validity of Prepaid Accounts Telecom operators have been doing their part to ensure seamless connectivity in stressful times. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have increased the validity of their prepaid plans until April 17, 2020. Not only this, but both telcos have also credited talk time credit of Rs 10 in the account of their prepaid subscribers respectively. Nearly 80 million subscribers of Bharti Airtel and 100 million Subscribers of Vodafone Idea who belong to the category of migrant workers and daily wage earners are getting the benefits of the extended validity of prepaid plans and extra talk time credit....

Telegram has now announced that it gained 25 million new users globally joined its platform in the past 72 hours. In the first week of January, Telegram announced that it surpassed 500 million monthly active user mark globally and it has continued to grow with 25 million new users joining the platform in the last 72 hours alone. Telegram also announced that 38% out of the newly added 25 million users are from Asia, followed by Europe with 27%....

Teoco, a leading provider of analytics, assurance and optimisation solutions, has announced the release of Helix 11.3. It is the latest version of the Service Assurance Solution with a new Long-Term Support (LTS) feature. The main differentiator for Helix 11.3 is that it will be supported and maintained for over five years. This is not the case with the standard editions of the solution. The goal behind Helix 11.3 is to give CSPs (Communication Service Providers) something that looks for a less frequent release pace but then also requires up-to-date service packs with the latest security patches and critical bug fixes....

It seems that with the Pandemic there has been an increase in terms of online scams, as more users have chosen to move online and get to grips with the internet for multiple uses. These uses include digital payments and verification for certain transactions. However, with this convenience, online methods for scams have also increased by quite a bit. In relation to this, the CEO of Airtel, Mr. Gopal Vittal had warned back in May to the telco’s subscribers to be vigilant and be on the lookout for frauds that work with hackers who try to get the OTP from users in order to make payments....

Fingerprinting of Set-Top Boxes One of the major points of discussion for the stakeholders in the consultation paper, which was floated for this matter was of fingerprinting and the watermarking of the network logo on the channels. As per the authority, the Set-Top Boxes being deployed after the new amendment regulations should support the covert fingerprinting. As per the available industry information on the matter, it has been made sure that not all the deployed STBs come with both types of fingerprinting....

Fluctuations for Pay and Free Channels Before the introduction of the new tariff regime, the DPOs were operating in the fixed fee model, but with the coming of the rules, there has been a massive impact on the viewership of channels, channel reach, and subsequently ratings of non-driver channels and overall revenue. The pay channels suffered fluctuations in this period after the introduction of the new directions, Hindi GECs saw a variation between 0....

Trai Wants to Take Right Decision on Interconnect Usage Charges Interconnect Usage Charges or IUC is one of the most important topics in the telecom industry right now and Trai wants to provide a right decision on this matter. As everyone might be aware of, Trai was supposed to implement zero-IUC regime or BAK regime on January 1, 2020, which will entirely remove the interconnect charges between operators. Trai made this announcement back in 2017 itself, but now, telcos Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are opposing the move saying that they will still incur charges for incoming calls from the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio....

The production linked incentive (PLI) scheme by the government for various sectors has played a big role in boosting the economy of the country. PLI schemes bring manufacturing within India and also create new jobs. While the government had already announced a PLI scheme for the telecom sector, it is working on a new PLI scheme, especially for the 5G equipment manufacturing. During the Union Budget 2022 announcements, Nirmala Sitharaman, Finance Minister, said the government would soon announce a PLI scheme for manufacturing in the 5G area....

Chinese smartphone brand, Vivo, has reduced the price of its mid-range smartphone V20 SE. Starting February 24, the Vivo V20 SE will be available at just Rs 19,990 for the 8GB+128GB variant. Launched in November 2020 for Rs 20,990, the V20 SE is the third smartphone in the Vivo V20 series and it is the cheapest smartphone in the series. The V20 SE comes in two colour options- Gravity Black and Aquamarine Green, and it is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 665 Mobile Platform....

Vodafone Idea (Vi) has stopped making large orders to the telecom vendors. The company is doing so because of its hurt cash flow. Even the vendors aren’t too eager to provide the telco with very large orders hence keeping their exposure to the company’s struggling finances lower. According to an ET Telecom report, a senior official of Vodafone Idea said that the volume of orders placed with the telecom vendors has come down significantly....

Beleaguered telecom operator Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL), which provides services under the ‘Vi’ brand, expects the government to step in and support the sector. Vodafone Idea Chairman, Himanshu Kapania, said in a letter to shareholders that the company is hopeful for the government to provide some sort of relief. Kapania further added that Vodafone Idea is hopeful that government will support its aim to make a reasonable return on the massive investments it has made....

Vodafone to Receive Rs 4,500 Crore from Stake Sale in Indus Tower Vodafone Idea has been instructed to pay their AGR dues till March 17, 2020. In the Recent developments, India’s second-largest telecom operator is expecting Rs 4,500 crore from the merger of Bharti Infratel and Indus Towers. Once the merger approval reaches the final stage, Vodafone Idea will receive the amount from its stake sale, and Oaktree capital will take their payment from the deal....

Vodafone Idea (Vi), the third-largest telecom operator in the country doesn’t offer users any SMS benefits with some of its prepaid plans. Thus, these plans are not the best if your Vi SIM is the primary connection as in the case of sending important SMSes such as for UPI or bank verification, you won’t be able to do it. Let’s take a look at the Vi plans which don’t offer any SMS benefits at all....

Vodafone Idea Yet to Restore Network Services in Bengaluru The telecom operator, however, hasn’t provided an estimated time to fix the problem. It remains to be seen whether the issue will be fixed today. Meanwhile, several users in other cities too have made similar complaints. Vodafone Idea users in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai are also reportedly facing network outage problems. The map on the Downdetector.in too showed the mass impact of the problem....

Vodafone Idea (Vi) has seen some positives in the market. The bullish sentiment is working well for the financially struggling telco. Vi’s share or stock has surged on Friday morning. The company’s stock had seen strong growth on Thursday, and the momentum has continued on Friday morning as well. The current stock price of Vodafone Idea at the time of this writing is Rs 7.70, which is 7.69% above, and is oscillating between Rs 7....

Vodafone Idea’s (Vi) stock has seen a strong opening on Tuesday. The news around banks urging the government to ease the pressure on the telco has worked its way. At the time of writing, Vi’s stock is at Rs 8.20 which is 3.14% in the green. The stock had closed at Rs 7.95 yesterday and opened at the same price. It also touched a high of Rs 8.30 in the morning session....

Vodafone Idea (Vi) is upgrading or revamping its backbone network with Ciena by deploying industry-leading 5G coherent optical solutions. The telco’s new 300G/400G backbone network increases performance and scale in a cost and energy-efficient manner to help enterprises, content players, and consumers with embracing their digital experience across India. Jagbir Singh, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Vodafone Idea, said Vi customers/subscribers will be able to experience world-class highly available, scalable connectivity and realise the benefits of the cloud, IoT, and 5G in future as the telco prepares a future-fit network with Ciena....