Vodafone

The Telecom Ministry will ask for nearly $300 million from Tata Teleservices, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Airtel and Idea Cellular for underreporting revenues, India’s Press Trust of India has reported, quoting unidentified sources.

The Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal of India has allowed some mobile operators to continue offering 3G services in areas for which they don’t have licenses until Jan. 9.

A month-wise list of important developments in the Indian telecom sector in 2011.

The number of social media users in India will reach 45 million in 2012, up from about 30 million in 2010, according to market research firm Research and Markets.

India’s Telecom Disputes Settlement & Appellate Tribunal has restrained the telecom ministry from taking any “coercive” steps until January 3 next year against the telecom companies for entering into 3G roaming pacts.

Terming the 3G roaming deals illegal, India’s Telecom Ministry has asked the telecom operators to discontinue their agreements. No decision has been made yet on whether to penalize the telcos for those deals.

India’s total GSM mobile subscriber base stood at 632.1 million as telecom operators added 6.7 million new subscribers in the month of November, an increase of 1.1% from the previous month.

A report by India’s telecom regulator states that the combined earned revenue of the country’s telecom operators was $9.6 billion at the end of Q2 (September 2011).

Top executives of three leading telecom companies in India have now written to the Indian Prime Minister over the issue of the controversial 3G roaming deals.

India’s GSM operators added 7.12 million new subscribers in the month of October, an increase of 1.15% from the previous month, bringing the country’s GSM subscriber base to 625.41 million.

India’s federal investigation agency has registered a case against the country’s two top telecom companies and a former Telecom Secretary for alleged irregularities in the allocation of spectrum during 2001-2003 when the late Pramoj Mahajan was telecom minister.

For the second time in two months, mobile marketing powerhouse Velti PLC (Nasdaq: VELT) has announced a strategic acquisition, saying it will buy Europe’s fastest-growing private technology company, Mobile Interactive Group. The purchase will make Velti the world’s largest mobile marketing company based on revenue and customers.

TRAI Chairman J.S. Sarma recently urged the telecom industry to increase the manufacturing of mobile equipment in India; a trial on India’s 2G spectrum scandal case will begin today in a lower court.

As a whole, India’s telecom sector collected $9.45 billion in gross revenue and $6.58 billion in adjusted gross revenue during this year’s second quarter, representing increases of 13.3% and 6.9%, respectively, over the same period last year, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India reported Wednesday.

The Indian telecom service business of Vodafone Group PLC has reported an adjusted operating loss of $15 million on total revenue of $3.53 billion in the first half of its 2011-12 financial year, despite a double-digit increase in revenue compared with the same period last year.

India’s Department of Telecommunications has asked Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, BSNL, Idea, RCL and RTL to explain why action should not be taken against them for failing to submit auditors reports for 2009-10.

US-based Qualcomm Inc will be granted an Internet service license, India’s Telecom Secretary R Chandrashekhar said. This paves the way for the US company to launch broadband services in the country.

Reuters | August 29, 2011 | Nicola Leske Telecoms giant Vodafone said on Monday it was exploring the possibility to cooperate with Wind Hellas, Greece’s third-biggest telecoms operator. Read the …

iTnews | August 22, 2011 | Juha Saarinen Vodafone’s New Zealand subsidiary has confirmed plans to move all international capacity to submarine cable contender Pacific Fibre, replacing current arrangements with …

Bloomberg | August 21, 2011 | Tracy Withers Vodafone Group Plc (VOD) agreed to a 10- year deal to take capacity on a new undersea fiber cable linking New Zealand, …