Sterlite Technologies Limited (STL) will contribute in building India’s 5G infrastructure for a smooth rollout of the next-generation network. It is worth noting that the company launched three different wireless products in the previous quarter. STL will soon commercially deploy Open Radio Access Network (Open-RAN) which is important for building the backend infrastructure for the rollout of 5G. As per a Livemint report, CEO of STL, Anand Agrawal, said that the company’s new products could be used for indoor and outdoor deployment of small cells and radio sets — more details on the story ahead....

Stranger Things 4 fails to break the Netflix squid game record. Even though Season 4 was acknowledged as the most popular English-language TV show in Netflix history, the South Korean survival drama nevertheless outperformed it globally. The most recent season (Volumes 1 and 2 taken together) has racked up over 1.352 billion viewing hours in its first 28 days of availability. Squid Game, on the other hand, recorded 1.650 billion hours over the same time period....

Sun Direct, the fourth largest Direct-to-Home (DTH) operator in India is still witnessing “tremendous demand” for its Set-Top Box (STB) with the company expecting the DTH sector to generate double-digit revenue growth. The development was shared by SL Narayanan, group CFO of Sun TV Network in the second quarter earnings call on November 12, 2020. Sun TV Network on November 12, 2020 reported its second quarter financial results for the period ended September 30, 2020, with the company recording 14% improvement in subscription revenues....

Vodafone Idea Cannot Secure Bank Guarantees in the Current Period As reported by ET Telecom, Vodafone Idea’s counsel addressed the apex legal body and stated that in the current situation, Vodafone Idea could not secure bank guarantees which are worth Rs 50,000 crore. Mukul Rohatgi who represented Vodafone Idea also stated that License and Spectrum were separately auctioned and the telco has purchased them for thousands of crores. So, an inbred value of the spectrum will be the best security....

Tariff hikes are inevitable. All the operators need it to sustain in the market comfortably. Even though Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel posted net profits in the books, both the operators saw their average revenue per user (ARPU) falling quite steeply. However, there is one thing that needs to be addressed. Any tariff hike in the short term will look very insensitive on behalf of the operators. Further, it would also make them come across as companies who don’t really care about their customers....

The Indian government has ordered a special audit of DTH (Direct-to-Home) operators in India, including Airtel Digital TV, Tata Play, Dish TV and Sun Direct. The audit is over the long-running dispute over the license fees. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India have been ordered by the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for an intensive audit of all the DTH service providers in the country. The audit will span back to the year of inception or grant of license by the government....

Tata Play Binge+, a Smart Set-Top Box (STB) from Tata Play, is available for customers across India. This is a product from Tata Play (earlier known as Tata Sky) that will enable you to watch both linear TV channels as well as OTT (over-the-top) content on your TV. Even if your TV is not a Smart TV, you will be able to directly stream content from OTT platforms with the help of this STB from Tata Play....

Subscribers Disappointed With New Trai Regime There have been numerous incidents across the country where the consumers are facing trouble after the migration to the new tariff regime. Some of the subscribers have not been getting the channel of their choices, while some are completely unaware as to how they should go about the migration process. While others who have migrated, are complaining of the increased monthly DTH bill. Amidst all this, the DTH providers and cable operators have been of little help to the subscribers....

Tata Sky today announced a new and improved offer on Tata Sky Binge+ - India’s next-generation Android set-top box. Introduced at a subsidised rate of Rs. 3,999, the new offer will enable subscribers to watch both linear channels (broadcast via satellite) and OTT content (via internet) from popular apps on their TV screen using a single remote. Additionally, Tata Sky Binge+ enables viewers to play any show, movie, music, game on their laptop, tablet or mobile phone and watch-it-directly on their TV with its in-built Chromecast feature....

How to Reduce NCF Charges on Tata Sky Subscription For example, the subscribers who get 40 HD channels and 100 SD channels would have to pay Rs 245 as their NCF every month which is constituted by Rs 153 for the first 100 channels and Rs 23 x 4 for the other 40 channels. Ultra News reported that if the subscriber also gets the Hindi Lite HD pack, then the network capacity fee for the customer gets capped at Rs 99 which means that no matter how many channels the subscribers add to his or her cart, they will only have to pay Rs 99 as the NCF....

Tata Sky, the largest Direct-to-Home (DTH) operator in India on Thursday revised the electronic programming guide (EPG) numbers of 13 regional channels. The development is on the heels of the operator revising the EPG numbers of various channels on its platform since early September. Tata Sky has moved channels in the English entertainment genre along with Tamil, Telugu, Punjabi and Marathi regional channels to new EPG slots as part of its platform updates....

Tata Sky, the largest Direct-to-Home (DTH) operator in India announced that over 35 regional channels will be moved to new electronic programming guide (EPG) numbers on September 8 and September 9, 2020. The operator since early September had moved over 30 channels to new EPG numbers on its platform including 18 Tamil channels on Monday. Tata Sky had also moved 10 English entertainment channels to new EPG numbers along with select Star Sports 1 regional channels....

Tata Sky, the largest Direct-to-Home (DTH) operator in India said that multiple sports channels and a regional channel on its platform will undergo electronic programming guide (EPG) number revision on September 4, 2020. The company said that the channels that are set to be impacted by the EPG revisions include multiple regional feeds of the Star Sports 1 channel and Seithigal channel. The development is on the heels of the operator earlier announcing that EPG numbers of 11 channels including 10 English entertainment and one Hindi news channel would undergo a revision on September 2....

Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS), a leading provider of connectivity and communications solutions for businesses in India, has announced that it will now offer Microsoft Azure to small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs). The offering is aimed at helping SMBs in shifting their business loads to the cloud in a seamless manner with a pay-as-you-go model to keep the costs in check. More and more SMBs are realising the need to adopt the cloud to modernise their business....

Tata Tele Business Services (TTBS), on Wednesday, announced that it would be offering the WhatsApp Business Platform to businesses with its cloud communications suite called Smartflo. The expansion of Smartflo with the WhatsApp Business Platform is a strategic move from the company and one that is aligned with helping clients/customers move ahead rapidly with their digital journey. The integration of WhatsApp Business Platform would help the customers purchasing Smartflo suite from TTBS in driving user engagement, enhancing customer experience and ensuring impactful customer interactions....

Last year, the regulator had tightened the rules to curb pesky telemarketing calls and messages, asking telecom operators to leverage the blockchain technology to reduce such unwanted communications. The overhaul of the unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) system aimed to ensure that telemarketing messages are sent only to those who have subscribed to them, and that too by authorized entities. Operators who fail to check pesky calls and SMS menace or do not adhere to the guidelines will face a stiff penalty....

The consumer spends on mobile services has finally crossed the pre-Jio levels in Q3 FY22. The previous high was in Q1 FY17. The total consumer spends during the quarter post-GST rose 4.2% QoQ and 8% YoY to Rs 420 billion, said ICICI Securities taking data from the TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) report. The rise in consumer spends will be attributed a little to the prepaid tariff hikes introduced by the private telecom operators in December 2021....

The Indian telecom industry has been in a constant state of survival since Jio has come to the market. The debt levels have been soaring because of liquidity issues that Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi) have faced in the past. But since 2021, things have started becoming good for the telecom industry and signs of recovery are there. The improvements can be credited to the higher demand for digital services as well as the government announcing relief measures for the telcos....

Delhi, Mumbai and Uttar Pradesh are Worst Affected by COVID-19 The spread of coronavirus is increasing tension for the government. Even the lockdown period was imposed by the government, cases have been in increased across the nation. In the top, Mumbai has been worst affected by the virus, and the highest number of cases have been registered in Maharashtra. Similarly, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh have also been facing the wrath of COVID-19....

India is very close to getting its first commercial 5G network. There’s no saying which telco would be the first to launch it, but with the arrival of 5G, the business landscape of India will change forever. Sanjay Raina, Vice President, Sales for India & South Asia, Mavenir, told TelecomTalk that 5G is not just a connectivity story that we had in the past. “4G, for example, was, you know, kind of helping YouTubers and the other form of communication which needed those kinds of speeds....