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While giants chase consumer profits, the state-run telco is eyeing the niche they’re keen to overlook. With government spectrum and a startup-friendly approach, it could lead a private-5G course—if only it can dodge red tape and markups
A US$11.5 billion spectrum auction in May is looming. The telcos, having already spent US$15 billion, are struggling to see profits. And the expected 5G-driven B2B boom remains elusive
Airtel, Jio, and Vi push for "fair share". Tech giants don’t want to part with their incredible cash piles for telecom access. But the government’s decision is not likely to come before 2024 General Elections
The CEO is driving a rejig at India’s #2 telco by infusing an internal board with some young blood
The enterprise revenue, $2.2B in the past year, stems from providing connectivity to giants and small and medium businesses. But future growth driven by tech solutions is a path also aggressively pursued by rival Reliance Jio and Tata Communications
As India calls upon the consulting titans to reshape the pillars of its digitisation crusade, the future of thousands of officials stands uncertain. And, with the entry of private firms, the government teeters on the brink of relinquishing its hold
Telecom secretary K Rajaraman says from a national-security perspective, the country needs a healthy mix of mobile, broadband, and satellite connectivity to withstand any form of difficulties and disruptions
In Round 1, Jio shook up the telecom sector with a $50B investment in 4G, creating virtually a duopoly with Airtel. Now, the rivals are busy outdoing each other to reign supreme in 120M households
Having highlighted the eight-year-old Milkbasket’s performance in almost all but one earnings call since the acquisition, Reliance is finally milking the e-grocer
Jio and Airtel, have called in Qualcomm and Mediatek to conquer 5G wireless home broadband. With trial runs expected in the coming weeks, the quartet is gearing up for a showdown
Google placed a major wager on India's biggest telco to bring 4G smartphones to half a billion people. The ambitious plan turned out to be an expensive misstep. Jio is now forging ahead with plans for 5G smartphones, and this time possibly without the tech giant
Reliance Industries-backed JioCinema is set to host what may be the country’s largest streaming event ever. But advertisers worry about Jio’s technical chops and their return on investment
The Indian government, which now owns 33% of the telco, has at least three good reasons for kicking the can down the road. How banks and promoters will throw good money after bad is an unfolding story
With Indus Towers, India pioneered the shared-telecom-infrastructure model. As its largest shareholder, Bharti Airtel, seeks out other infra providers, the telecom-tower company now faces an existential question: to share or not to share
India’s top telco is hoping to score big with a contract to provide phones to millions of women in Rajasthan, a state where it needs a shot in the arm
Several changes in the draft—primarily the ones on OTT services and the telecom regulator—are likely to be unveiled in December
Several mid-to-senior-level regional executives have exited Airtel over the past couple of years. At the same time, Jio has been rethinking its local and regional strategy for the 5G rollout
If Cisco and RingCentral can come, Zoom may not be far behind. But the communications tech company’s entry into the sector has left Jio, Airtel, and Vi wondering
The hit retail telecom business can’t do much for Jio Platforms’ success or valuation. With two data centres ready to launch, a 10-year Microsoft partnership is kicking in gear as Reliance begins to assemble the pieces of its crown jewel US$65B Jio Platforms
On day 2, India secured 36% of the estimated revenues from the three-day 5G spectrum auctions. It was a better show than previous auctions, but Indian telcos bought at a price that the government set, even in important circles. Why call it an auction then
That’s the annual amount Amazon pays Indian telcos to send SMSes. Though the US e-commerce major has been lobbying India's telecom regulator for two years fearing ‘substantial financial implications’, it still finds itself paying increasing international SMS rates
In 2020, Amazon was looking to invest in Airtel. In 2021, it did serious due diligence on Vi, with the government as the matchmaker. Now that the telco is admittedly close to raising Rs 20K crore, could the Amazon-Vi match finally be made?
If telecom 1.0 was about operators, 2.0 is about integrators. If Tatas have emerged as one, decades-old telecoms veteran HFCL cannot be far behind. A close partner and investee of the Reliance group, HFCL is flexing its yet-to-form product muscles as the winds of change gather speed
With Jio largely done spending on its 4G network, Samsung has seen its telecoms revenue in the country drying up. Desperate to arrest this slide and having secured no 5G commitments from Jio, the South Korean major is looking to snag a slice of Airtel’s 5G spends instead
For years, India’s cash-strapped telcos have been bullish on 5G deployment. But with high spectrum prices and home-grown tech falling short, rivals are finding common cause in delaying the expensive transition to the new generation of mobile networks
Since acquiring Embibe in 2018, Reliance has spent nearly $80 million revamping the AI-based edtech. With a mega relaunch lined up for January 2022, Embibe is looking to take the quickest route to scale—schools
The Mukesh Ambani-led conglomerate has built up a small army of healthcare offerings with a view to creating an integrated healthcare play. Putting all these pieces together, however, is proving difficult even for a behemoth like Reliance
India’s largest conglomerate Reliance Industries already owns an Indian Premier League franchise and operates the country’s top football league. Its next goal is to get into the lucrative Indian sports broadcast industry, which will reportedly be worth $1.3 billion by 2024. Indian cricket rights—the IPL in particular—are high on the agenda
India’s top telco, Reliance Jio, recently announced that its low-cost smartphone would be delayed until November. Having already suffered from inventory issues, it will be a tough task to reach its target of 300 million devices sold. Especially now that Bharti Airtel is mooting its own smartphone offering
After emerging out of nowhere and becoming number one in the world’s most competitive telecom market, Reliance Jio is in a bit of a tight spot
Sunil Bharti Mittal’s US$1 billion, OneWeb’s swift progress, regulators’ new-found agility—India's skies are opening up for space companies. Airtel looks settled, but Jio, which hasn’t dabbled in satellites ever, must feel unsettled now that 5G mobile telephony is being integrated with satellite
India’s third largest telco already has one foot in the grave. To avoid a funeral, it needs help from the Indian government. The question now is whether the government believes it’s worth saving or whether it expects Vi to get itself out of this mess (or die trying)
To 5Gi or not to 5Gi. Approved as a superset of 5G, India’s fifth-generation telecom standards have created a perceived fragmentation that cellular tech has never seen before. Indian operators Reliance Jio and Airtel have taken opposite stands. Global vendors, meanwhile, are doing what they do best
After soaring high on the wings of its $27 billion fundraising blitz through most of 2020, Reliance Industries’ stock has slumped since September. Its results, announced on Friday, saw the stock lose a further 5%. Its Covid-hit oil-to-chemicals business is part of the reason, but hidden metrics, a lack of visible direction, and inflated claims are equally to blame
As price wars and survival struggles drew to an end in 2020, new plotlines have emerged for the year to come. Will 5G spectrum find any takers? What will Trai be like under its new chief? And what will India’s upcoming satellite communications policy look like?
Big tech has big tie-ups with Indian telcos but other countries are trying to fend them off. As regulated telecom gets into bed with soon-to-be-regulated tech, profound changes are around the corner.
Reliance Jio’s Point-of-Sale machines were meant to transform India’s unorganised retail sector. By mid-2019, Jio expected to deploy 150,000 of its PoS machines in kirana stores across the country. With 2021 around the corner, though, it has barely managed 20,000
After stints at rival telcos Jio, Bharti, even Indonesian player Smartfren, Singh is taking on Vodafone Idea version 2.0—Vi. But he'll need to do a lot more than any regular CTO would, starting with boosting the company's morale
India's two largest telcos are getting their hands dirty in the quest for a 5G solution. While both are weighing open source architecture, the way they're going about things couldn't be more different
After racing to become the largest Indian telco in just four years, Jio had plans to cross the 500 million-user mark this October. The 100 million users it needs to do this, though, may be more difficult to snag than the previous 400 million
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