BSNL may takeover Data Access
In a very uncommon move, BSNL is all set to takeover Data Access a long distance service provider. It is learnt that Data Access owed BSNL Rs200 crores and is unable to pay the dues. BSNL is considering to takeover the company after all the legal efforts to recover the dues have failed.
Telekom Malaysia enters India
Telekom Malaysia has bought 49% stake in the Modi’s controlled Spice Telecom. Spice Telecom is a GSM operator operating in the circles of Punjab and Karnataka since 1995. Though Spice has competed well in Punjab it is far behind in the number of subscribers it has in Karnataka, a mere 400,000. Spice was in talks with Telekom Malaysia and Maxis since early Feburary this year. Telekom Malaysia paid $180 million for a 49% stake thus valuing Spice at $360 Million(Rs1600 crores). I learn from my insiders that Spice has added around 100,000 users in the past 3 weeks thus taking the total subscriber base to 19,00,000. Telekom Malaysia got a deal by just paying Rs8,400/subscriber while Maxis had paid Rs14,300/subscriber when it acquired Aircel.
Insiders tell me that Spice has been aggressively trying to market in rural areas and has also paid BSNL to acquire the required bandwidth. Spice hopes that the network upgradation will be completed by end of June.
Mobile number portability coming to India
Convergence India insiders have learnt that TRAI & the Govt of India to protect consumers interest have ordered all the Cellular operators in India to comply with the mobile number portability guidelines and recommendations. Cellular operators have been given a time frame of 1 year. The scheme should be effective from April-1st 2007 and operators should not charge more than Rs200 per consumer for migration. The portability is restricted to intra-circle only.
Reliance Communications Venture lists on Indian bourses
Reliance Communications Venture Limited, the holding company of Reliance Telecom and Reliance Infocomm started trading on March-6th. The stock closed at Rs290 giving it a market capitalisation of around Rs35,000 crores (USD 8 Billion). The financials of the company are still not crystal clear as group and family interests have always overruled small investors in the Reliance family 
. Bharti Tele-Ventures leads the telecom stocks in India with a market cap double than that of Reliance Communications.
Reliance Internet for folks behind the wheel
After landing in Bangalore took Shatbadi to my native. It was nice to see that Reliance Telecom’s internet working on train. I feel this service is extremely useful for folks on the move. All you need is a PCMCIA card from Reliance which will cost Rs6500 and Rs1500 subscription fees per month for unlimited internet access. It works wherever Reliance India Mobile works. The only bottleneck is Speed -;) It sucks! They promise 64-128Kbps but its around 28Kbps.
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