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Telephony today has reached out to 90 per cent of the population and the next step would be to ensure that it reaches the next 10 per cent. Ashok Jhunjhunwala from the Department of Electrical Engineering, India [ Images ]n Institute of Technology, Madras and founder of Tenet Telecom said while speaking at a plenary session on Wireless India at the EmTech 2010 conference at Bengaluru [ Images ].

He further added that affordability and broadband will be the two major factors that will help tap the remaining market.

Speaking on broadband he said that wireless will not be able to compete with it and added that the government needs to look in terms of speed and focus on 4G in the next one year.

The question that now arises is, what more can telephony do? The next big thing in the offing is mobile banking and there is a need to take banks to the rural area. However he felt that the telephony's biggest impact would be on the country's farm sector. The impact, he said, will be large. Today, a farmer may need to communicate with an expert regarding his crop. A call centre could be set up for the farmers and in this way the rest of the market could be tapped.

He further added that voice technology is another aspect that would lead to more demand and adaptability of wireless in the country. This could in fact help break the barrier among the uneducated and illiterate masses of the country.

S Sadagopan of International Institute of Information Technology said that the mobile phone has seen a huge growth in the wireless space. Today we are adding 15 million mobile subscribers every month. The largest contributor to the GDP is telephony and we need to make mobile the primary platform and for this the mindset of the people has to change.

On mobile banking he said that they are trying to change a few things in this department. Today one cannot transfer money unless the account number of the person is known. However in the future we would like to see that money is transferred using the other persons mobile number. We are getting ready for this, he added.

Volatility ruled the roost as the key benchmark indices hit fresh intraday lows in mid-morning trade ahead of a key economic data. The BSE 30-share Sensex was down 62.10 points or 0.37%, off close to 105 points from the day's high. The S&P CNX Nifty fell below the psychological 5,000 mark. The Nifty had regained the 5,000 level on Wednesday, 11 November 2009. Banking, realty and metal stocks fell. But telecom stocks rose. Index heavyweight Reliance Industries edged lower.

Bharti Airtel jumped 4% to Rs 303.65 at 14:33 IST after Singapore Telecommunications, or SingTel, has agreed to increase its effective stake in the company to 31.95% from 30.43%.

Telecom Minister A Raja is meeting the CEOs of telecom companies today, to discuss issues relating to improving rural tele-density and lowering of tariffs further among others.

The meeting with the Unified Licence holders will discuss how the connectivity in rural India can be improved and what steps need to be taken to encourage operators to go there, Telecom Minister A Raja said.

The government is having over Rs 16,000 crore towards Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund and same can be used for providing subsidy to the operators for enhancing rural telecom infrastructure.

The meetings, spread over three days, will have separate discussions with unified licensees, NLD and ILD players, telecom equipment manufacturers and Internet service providers (ISPs).

SINGAPORE - Singapore Telecommunications has agreed to increase its effective stake in mobile phone operator Bharti Airtel to 31.95 percent from 30.43 percent, the company said.

SingTel has entered into a conditional agreement with Bharti Group to purchase an additional 730,000 shares in Bharti Telecom, which is the sponsor of the listed entity Bharti Airtel, the Singapore firm said in a statement late on Friday.

SingTel will make an estimated payment of between 18,073 million Indian rupees to 30,084 million Indian rupees ($641.3 million) for the purchase of additional shares of Bharti Telecom, the statement said.

The price difference is because the payment schedule is spread over more than a year after the agreement kicks in on Nov. 12.

Bharti Telecom has a stake of around 45.3 percent in Bharti Airtel.

On Friday Bharti Airtel gave a downbeat outlook due to a price war after posting its slowest pace of profit growth in at least six years, sending its shares down nearly 7 percent.

Bharti Airtel, Asia’s leading integrated telecom service provider, today launched the ‘Freedom Plan’ for its customers. With the launch of this plan, Airtel customers will have the freedom of choosing from a variety of plans based on their usage and calling patterns. In the ‘Freedom Plan’, Airtel customers will be charged 1 paise per second for all Local and STD calls to Airtel numbers and 1.20 paise per second for local and STD calls to other network.

Bharti Airtel inched up 0.21% to Rs 312.70 at 10:22 IST after the net profit rose 43.10% to Rs 2296.94 crore on a 7.5% increase in total income to Rs 8927.10 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q2 September 2008.


The result was announced during trading hours today, 30 October 2009.
Meanwhile, the BSE Sensex was up 206.30 points, or 1.29%, to 16264.11.

On BSE, 3.84 lakh shares were traded in the counter as against an average daily volume of 20.46 lakh shares in the past one quarter.

The stock hit a high of Rs 323 and a low of Rs 310.50 so far during the day. The stock had hit a 52-week high of Rs 495 on 19 May 2009 and a 52-week low of Rs 272 on 12 March 2009.

The stock had underperformed the market over the past one month till 29 October 2009, falling 25.50% as compared to the Sensex 4.75% fall. It underperformed the market in past one quarter, tumbling 26.28% as against 5.79% rise in the Sensex.

India's largest listed telecom service provider by sales has an equity capital of Rs 1898.42 crore. Face value per share is Rs 5.

The current price of Rs 312.70 discounts the company's Q1 June 2009 annualised EPS of Rs 28.31, by a PE multiple of 11.04.

On a consolidated basis, as per Indian accounting standards, the net profit jumped 35.10% to Rs 2254.17 crore on a 16.10% increase in total income to Rs 10393.06 crore in Q2 September 2009 over Q2 September 2008.

Bharti Airtel provides mobile telecommunication services in India. It also provides fixed-line, VSAT, Internet and broadband services.

Bharti Airtel rose 2.75% to Rs 411.05 at 14:37 IST on BSE, after a newspaper report quoted Chairman Sunil Mittal as saying that the company is not looking to sweeten its deal to buy a stake in South Africa's MTN.

Bharti Airtel fell 0.96% to Rs 400.80 at 13:24 IST on BSE after the company and South Africa's MTN Group extended until 30 September 2009 their exclusive talks aimed at merging their operations

BHARTI : No Decision or agreement has yet been made, Talks Continue to progress satisfactorily.

MTN: Group says discussions between the parties regarding the potential transaction continue to progress satisfactorily, talks with BHARTI AIRTEL to sept.30. their exclusive talks aimed at merging their operations to create the world's third-largest mobile operator

Chennai: Sunil Bharti Mittal on Tuesday steered clear of committing to wrapping up exclusive merger negotiations with South Africa's MTN before the revised deadline at the end of this month.

Bharti Airtel rose 1.78% to Rs 406.25 at 11:44 IST on reports it has received offers from more than a dozen offshore banks eager to finance its merger with South African mobile-phone company MTN Group.

New Delhi, Aug 17 (PTI) Telecom major Bharti Airtel today unveiled its wholesale service portfolio that will enable telecom operators across 50 countries access its services.

Four Indian IT majors have been short-listed for Bharti Airtel's IT contract, reports CNBC-TV18, quoting sources. The shortlisted companies include Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, IBM, and Tech Mahindra. Bharti Airtel's IT contract is valued at USD 500 million, for which 10 IT firms had bid.
When contacted, Bharti Airtel was unavailable for comment. The outsourcing contract is for management of inter-city fibre network. IBM is currently working on a USD 100 million IT contract for Airtel.

MUMBAI - Leading mobile operator Bharti Airtel replaced Reliance Industries as the most preferred stock of domestic fund managers in July, becoming the only company to topple the dominance of the country's most valuable firm since at least December 2006.

Bharti Airtel's proposed merger deal with South Africa's MTN by 31 August 2009 exclusivity deadline may run into turbulence with a group of investors asking market regulator Sebi to investigate multiple aspects of the proposed deal. As per reports the Indian Investors Protection Council (IIPC) has written to Sebi chairman C B Bhave, with a copy marked to Bharti Airtel chairman Sunil Bharti Mittal, asking Sebi to investigate if regulations have been breached for exempting MTN from making an open offer to Indian shareholders.

NEW DELHI - Shares in Bharti Airtel fell more than 3 percent by Tuesday afternoon on concerns the country's top mobile operator may have to cough up more to buy a proposed stake in South Africa's MTN.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel and MTN Group extended their exclusive talks aimed at merging their operations to create the world's third-largest mobile operator by a month to Aug. 31, the Indian firm said on Monday.

Bharti and MTN had revived merger talks in May, a year after previous talks broke down over who would control a merged entity. A merger would create an emerging markets giant with more than 200 million customers across India, Africa and the Middle East.

The exclusive talks over the deal, which would see each firm pay cash and stock for a stake in the other, were due to end on July 31. Sources earlier told Reuters the talks were likely to be extended by at least two to three weeks.

Under the initial terms, MTN and its shareholders would take 36 percent economic interest in Bharti Airtel and the Indian firm would end up with 49 percent of MTN.

BANGALORE (Reuters) - The chairman of Bharti Airtel, India's leading mobile operator, will resign from the board of Standard Chartered with effect from July 31, according to a company statement on Tuesday.

Sunil Bharti Mittal, who has been a non-executive director of Standard Chartered since August 2007, said he was resigning as he found it difficult to balance involvement with Bharti Enterprises with his role of a bank board member.

Bharti Enterprises is the unlisted parent of Bharti Airtel.

Standard Chartered is advising Bharti in a deal that could lead to a merger with South Africa's MTN Group, creating the world's No. 3 wireless group with more than 200 million subscribers and combined revenue of $20 billion.