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Bharti Airtel Brings Three New Prepaid Plans to Compete With Jio
TRAI Rolls Out New Tariff Order for Telcos, Asks Not to Offer Differential Tariffs
5G In India Will Have Two Primary Use Cases for Consumers: Airtel CTO
OnePlus 9R Delivered Great Gaming Results on Airtel 5G Network
5G Spectrum Needs to be Priced Fair by the Indian Government
Bharti Airtel Conducts India’s First 5G Cloud Gaming Test, Gets Super Results
Xiaomi Increases Price of Five Smartphones in India
Starlink Figuring Out Regulatory Approvals for India, Ready to Launch Services
BSNL Has 3 Lakh Plus Bharat Fibre Users In Kerala Now
Relief Package for Telecom Sector Might Come In Phases
Vodafone Idea Will Be Rooting for Airtel to Raise Tariffs
Bharti Airtel Will Soon Give 2GB 4G Data Without Any Additional Cost

Bharti Airtel Brings Three New Prepaid Plans to Compete With Jio

Posted: 02 Sep 2021 08:31 AM PDT

Bharti Airtel has today brought three new prepaid plans to take on Reliance Jio. For the unaware, Reliance Jio came out with new Disney+ Hotstar prepaid plans on September 31, 2021. It was expected that Bharti Airtel would follow up, and now the telco has. Bharti Airtel has introduced three new plans that are visible on its website, and they come for Rs 2,798, Rs 699, and Rs 499 each. These plans are identical in nature to what Jio introduced a couple of days back. Let's take a look at the benefits offered by each of these in detail.

Bharti Airtel New Disney+ Hotstar Prepaid Plans

Bharti Airtel has introduced three new Disney+ Hotstar prepaid plans. The first plan comes for Rs 499, and it has a short validity of 28 days and offers users 3GB daily data with a free subscription to the Disney+ Hotstar Mobile-only plan. This plan further offers users all the Airtel Thanks benefits, which include a free subscription to the Amazon Prime Video Mobile Edition, Airtel Xstream Premium, Free Hellotunes, Wynk Music, Shaw Academy, Apollo 24/7 Circle, and Rs 100 cashback on FASTag transactions. Bharti Airtel will further offer users two new prepaid plans of Rs 699 and Rs 2,798 each. Both these plans will offer users unlimited voice calling and 100 SMS/day. Note that the Rs 499 plan also offers users unlimited voice calling and 100 SMS/day. The Rs 699 and Rs 2,798 plans come with a validity of 56 days and 365 days each. Both the plans further offer 2GB daily data to the users. Users will be entitled to receive all the same Airtel Thanks benefits that are offered with the Rs 499 plan. Lastly, users will get a subscription to the Disney+ Hotstar mobile-only plan with all of the above-mentioned plans. Note that the Disney+ Hotstar mobile-only plan's standalone subscription cost is Rs 499. It is only time before Vodafone Idea introduces these plans as well.

TRAI Rolls Out New Tariff Order for Telcos, Asks Not to Offer Differential Tariffs

Posted: 02 Sep 2021 07:30 AM PDT

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has rolled out a major tariff order for the telcos. According to the regulator's order, the telcos can't offer differential tariffs via their commercial partners. The sector regulator has said that the telcos can only offer tariffs that have been reported to the authorities. This is because offering anything else through the commercial partners is discriminatory and "contravene" the current rules set around pricing by the regulator.

Telecom Operators Shouldn't Offer Anything Not Reported to the Regulator

The telecom operators can't offer anything that has not been reported to the regulator. The sector regulator wants everything to be transparent, and if the operators offer tariffs that are not reported, it would be unfair to the customers. It is worth noting that this order has been released by the regulator because the telcos have been complaining against each other. It is not just one operator that has been doing this but all the private telecom operators, including Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio, and Bharti Airtel. In recent months, both Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio have been coming out with commercial offers very aggressively to attract the customers of Vodafone Idea. As per Jefferies, Vodafone Idea customers have already started to migrate to the networks of Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. The order from TRAI looks very justified, and this order will ensure transparency in the sector. If the telcos offer any differential tariffs to attract customers through the mobile number portability (MNP) route now, they will have to be answerable to the sector regulator. This means that the telcos can now not offer differential tariffs through third-party applications and can't even form any commercial partnership to offer such tariffs to attract new customers. This order from the TRAI looks very timely, and it is something that Vodafone Idea will appreciate the most. Vodafone Idea will be further waiting for the relief package from the government.

5G In India Will Have Two Primary Use Cases for Consumers: Airtel CTO

Posted: 02 Sep 2021 07:00 AM PDT

In a brief virtual event today, Bharti Airtel shared the feats it had achieved while testing its 5G networks for virtual gaming. During the event, Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Bharti Airtel, said that 5G would have two primary use cases for consumers in India. From consumers, he meant normal mobile users. Sekhon said that 5G would be drive cloud gaming and immersive entertainment experience for the Indians in the coming years.

5G In India Will Drive Cloud Gaming and Immersive Entertainment Experience for Users

5G will not have many unique use cases for Indian users, but it will help with cloud gaming, as demonstrated by Bharti Airtel in a recent test. On top of that, the next-generation connectivity will drive the growth of immersive entertainment experiences for the users. From immersive entertainment, Sekhon meant watching content with the help of augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) gadgets. This will take the experience of watching anything for the consumers to the next level. Sekhon gave an example of watching cricket through VR gadgets and seeing something directly from behind the stumps or from the boundary. Sekhon said that what Bharti Airtel can do is create an infrastructure of connectivity where other technology companies from around the world can step in and leverage the network to deliver a next-generation connectivity experience to the users. At the same time, the Airtel CTO didn't rule out the enterprise segment that 5G will attract. He said that 5G would attract both the B2B and B2C segments. There are a lot of use cases for 5G in the enterprise segment, while a good 4G network can fulfil almost each and every demand of an average consumer from his/her mobile phone. There are a lot of things that 5G will enable for the consumers in India, and Airtel has a chance to be at the forefront of the market.

OnePlus 9R Delivered Great Gaming Results on Airtel 5G Network

Posted: 02 Sep 2021 05:14 AM PDT

OnePlus 9R was used by the gamers who were testing Bharti Airtel's 5G network for cloud gaming. There are a lot of smartphones available in India at the Rs 40,000 price range, which can deliver a great 5G experience, but there's still a lot of room in the market for mid-range 5G phones to make an impact. OnePlus 9R is one of the best smartphones launched by OnePlus in 2021. It was launched alongside the OnePlus 9 and the OnePlus 9 Pro devices. The gamers had opted to play Asphalt on the device and said that the gameplay experience was as smooth as it can be. Let's take a look at the 5G bands this smartphone can support.

OnePlus 9R 5G Bands

It is worth noting that OnePlus 9R only supports a single 5G band. It is the N78 band for both 5G SA and 5G NSA. The N78 band in a device is capable of supporting spectrum in the 3.3 GHz – 3.8 GHz bands. Thus using this device was very convenient for the telco since it was also testing its Gurgaon 5G network in the 3.5 GHz band. Both the gamers, including Mortal and Mamba, had used the same device and had connected with the 5G network of Airtel. OnePlus 9R further supports 4G bands: LTE-FDD: B1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12, 17, 18, 19, 20, 26; and LTE-TDD: B34, 38, 39, 40, 41, 46.

OnePlus 9R Price

The OnePlus 9R is available in two variants in India. The first variant is available for Rs 39,999 and comes with 8GB+128GB while its second variant with 12GB+256GB variant comes for Rs 43,999. The smartphone is available in two colours – Lake Blue and Carbon Black. The OnePlus 9R has been called the brother of the OnePlus 8T since both the devices are almost smilier in specifications except for the camera and the chipset. The OnePlus 9R comes powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC coupled with up to 12GB of RAM and 256GB of internal storage.

5G Spectrum Needs to be Priced Fair by the Indian Government

Posted: 02 Sep 2021 04:33 AM PDT

5G is a very exciting technology, and while the other countries already have live 5G networks, India is still in the testing phase. However, for 5G to be successful in India, the telcos need to get it at a fair price. The 5G spectrum auctions are going to be very crucial for determining how well India progresses in the 5G era. Telecom operators have already said that they need the spectrum at an affordable price else their cost of network deployment will go up. The previous auctions should be an example for the government.

5G Spectrum In India Price Will Be Crucial

The operators have already ignored the 700 MHz spectrum in the previous 4G auctions because of its steep price. This suggests that even though the airwaves are important for the telcos, they will not buy them if they don't get them for a fair price. So what's the fair price? A fair price is something that the operators can afford and is also in line with the global price. The 700 MHz spectrum was again ignored by the operators in the auctions held in March 2021 because the price wasn't right. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) had also asked for the regulator and the government to reduce the price of the airwaves that will be offered to the telcos in the 5G spectrum auctions. The 5G spectrum auctions are expected to take place during the first half of 2022. Every private operator is currently testing their 5G network and solutions in different parts of the country. If the operators don't get the 5G spectrum at the right price, they can just go ahead with the Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technology and refarm their 4G spectrum for 5G to offer next-generation connectivity services. It is worth noting that Bharti Airtel has already done so in Hyderabad in February this year. Further, the results were great for the telco.

Bharti Airtel Conducts India’s First 5G Cloud Gaming Test, Gets Super Results

Posted: 02 Sep 2021 02:46 AM PDT

Bharti Airtel today said that one of the biggest use cases of 5G networks in the B2C segment would be that of Cloud Gaming. The telco tested its networks with two top e-sports gamers in India namely 'Mortal' (Naman Mathur) and 'Mamba' (Salman Ahmad). The results of the test were really great for the telco as the gamers found absolutely zero issues while online gaming. The latency was ultra-low and the download speeds were absolutely great.

Bharti Airtel Conducts India's First 5G Cloud Gaming Session

It is worth noting that while each and every other operator is working on 5G and testing their technology, Bharti Airtel has become the first one to test 5G cloud gaming in India. Both the gamers connected to the 5G network of Airtel being tested in Gurgaon. During cloud gaming tests, Airtel 5G network was able to deliver low latency of 10ms and a download speed of 1 Gbps to the gamers. Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Bharti Airtel, said that while the mobile gaming industry has grown a lot in the last few years, the upcoming two years where India will have live 5G networks will explode the industry. This is because, with the presence of 5G networks, cloud gaming can be enabled, which will give the users playing multiplayer games a better experience overall. Airtel has already tested its 5G network in Hyderabad with the help of Dynamic Spectrum Sharing (DSS) technology leveraging the 1800 MHz spectrum. 5G is expected to be a catalyst for the growth of the online mobile gaming industry as well as other things. One of the many use cases of 5G will be 'immersive entertainment', as per Sekhon. Note that Airtel is conducting its 5G trials in India with the help of equipment vendors, including Nokia and Ericsson. The 5G trials are going in multiple parts of the country.

Xiaomi Increases Price of Five Smartphones in India

Posted: 02 Sep 2021 12:34 AM PDT

Xiaomi has been very pushy with its prices recently. The company's not to blame since the price hike on its products is understandable because of the increased cost of manufacturing and shipment. Now, the company has increased the prices of five of its smartphones in India. These smartphones are – Redmi Note 10T, Redmi Note 10S, Redmi 9 Power, Redmi 9, and Redmi 9i. Let's take a look at all the devices' new prices.

Xiaomi Products Which Just Got a Price Hike

The development has been first reported by MySmartPrice. The Redmi Note 10T, which was recently launched in two variants with 4GB+64GB and 6GB+128GB for Rs 13,999 and Rs 15,999, has received a Rs 1,000 price hike in each of its variants. So now the 4GB+64GB variant is available for Rs 14,999 and the 6GB+128GB variant is available for Rs 16,999. The Redmi Note 10S has received a price hike of Rs 500 on its superior variant. The base variant of the device is still available for Rs 14,999 (6GB+64GB). But the superior variant with 6GB+128GB is now available for Rs 16,499 instead of Rs 15,999. The next device is Redmi 9 Power. The device was launched in India in three variants – (a) 4GB+64GB, (b) 4GB+128GB, and (c) 6GB+128GB. The (a) and (c) variants have received a price hike of Rs 500 each. The (b) variant is still available for Rs 11,999. However, the (a) and (b) variants are available at a new price of Rs 11,499 and Rs 13,499, respectively. Then the Redmi 9 has received a price hike of Rs 500 on its base variant with 4GB+64GB, which will now be selling for Rs 9,499 instead of Rs 8,999. The superior variant with 4GB+128GB is still available for Rs 9,999. Lastly, the Redmi 9i has also received a price hike on its base variant that comes with 4GB+64GB. The new price of the Redmi 9i base variant is Rs 500, more expensive at Rs 8,799, while the 4GB+128GB variant is still selling for Rs 9,299.

Starlink Figuring Out Regulatory Approvals for India, Ready to Launch Services

Posted: 01 Sep 2021 11:48 PM PDT

Starlink is currently figuring out the regulatory approvals required for providing satellite broadband services in India. The SpaceX backed company has expressed its intention of providing services in India by mid-2022 and it had also started selling pre-booking of the connections. Elon Musk said on Twitter that Starlink is figuring out the regulatory approval process. One of the biggest things that lacks in India in the satcom industry is the lack of guidelines and the policy framework. The government is currently working on it and should come out with it soon so that the private companies planning to come to the Indian market know what they are stepping into.

Starlink's Mammoth Challenge Isn't to Send Satellites to Space, but Get Regulatory Approvals

Starlink has been said to be ready for providing global coverage by September 2021. But the company can't just outright start providing services in every country as soon as it is ready to do so. The bigger challenge for Starlink would be to comply with regulatory approvals of each country. Before getting regulatory approvals, the company's investments would lie idle. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has already directed Starlink to get the necessary regulatory approvals before it starts providing satellite broadband services in India. For the unaware, Starlink is already providing beta services in 14 different countries including New Zealand, Australia, the US, and multiple parts of Europe. The same regulatory approvals will be required by companies such as OneWeb and Project Juniper from Amazon. OneWeb has already communicated its decision about being a B2B company in India initially. The satcom company will help the telcos with backhaul and connectivity in areas where terrestrial networks aren't present. But Starlink is expected to be a B2C company since the company had already started selling pre-booking of connections in India for a $99 amount. Things need to happen fast in India in terms of regulatory framework and guidelines so that these companies don't lose out on their investment.

BSNL Has 3 Lakh Plus Bharat Fibre Users In Kerala Now

Posted: 01 Sep 2021 10:01 PM PDT

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) offers its fiber broadband services through its broadband arm called Bharat Fibre. The company offers Bharat Fibre services in every telecom circle of the country. Now, it has been reported that the total number of BSNL Bharat Fibre connection in Kerala have surpassed 3,00,000 or 0.3 million. This is a great feat for the state-run telco since it can maximise its revenues from the broadband services while it is rolling out 4G across the nation.

BSNL Has Most Bharat Fibre Subscribers In Calicut in Kerala

According to a report shared by KeralaTelecom, BSNL has the most Bharat Fibre subscribers in Calicut in Kerala. There are a total of 43,864 connections of Bharat Fibre in Calicut, followed by 41,420 connections in Ernakulam. Kollam and Kannur bag the third and fourth-best cities for BSNL with 32,664 and 31,145 connections in the state. BSNL has the least number of Bharat Fibre connections in Malappuram (18,282 connections). The total number of connections in the state have been reported 3,00,423. The great thing for BSNL is that out of the 11 business areas in Kerala, the telco has more than 20,000 subscribers or connections in 10 of them. This might boost the confidence of the telco in coming out with better and more innovative services in the future. BSNL Bharat Fibre plans are at par with what other companies, including Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, offer to their users. The state-run telco also offers unlimited data up to 3.3TB and provides an over-the-top (OTT) benefit of Disney+ Hotstar Premium with the Rs 999 and Rs 1,499 plans. Kerala is one of the best circles for BSNL in terms of business around the country, and the telco should treat it as a priority circle. The company offers plans with up to 300 Mbps speeds in India. Users can also choose the entry-level Rs 449 plan, which offers 30 Mbps of speeds if they want to save money.

Relief Package for Telecom Sector Might Come In Phases

Posted: 01 Sep 2021 09:16 PM PDT

The telecom industry of India is eagerly waiting for a relief package from the government to come through. According to the latest developments, the relief package for the sector might come in a phased manner. There is a chance that all the benefits are announced at the same time, but the chances of the benefits coming in a phased manner are higher. The relief package from the government will benefit the ailing sector majorly. It will especially benefit Vodafone Idea (Vi), which is struggling to make ends meet.

Kumar Mangalam Birla Meets With Ashwini Vaishnav

The Indian business tycoon, Chairman of the Aditya Birla Group, Kumar Mangalam Birla, recently met with the union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnav. The development comes from an ET Telecom report, but it doesn't exactly mention the topic of conversation between the two. There's a high chance that their conversation revolved around the relief package for the sector. Birla knows the need for an immediate relief package so that the financial stress of the Vodafone Idea can be lifted in the short term. A senior government official aware of the matter told ET Telecom that the relief measures would start coming in one by one. The official said that the focus of the government is to get going so that the stress from the sector could be lifted as fast as possible. The relief package would also benefit other telcos such as Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio. The government might reduce the license fees (LF) for the telcos, and the adjusted gross revenues (AGR) might be defined in a new way that might exclude all the non-telecom revenues. It is worth noting that Birla stepped down as the non-executive Chairman of the company almost a month back and had written to the government about his wish to sell his promoter share in Vodafone Idea. It will be worth waiting for the relief package to see what it exactly brings for the operators.

Vodafone Idea Will Be Rooting for Airtel to Raise Tariffs

Posted: 01 Sep 2021 06:30 PM PDT

Vodafone Idea (Vi) has been waiting for the telecom industry to go ahead with the tariff hikes. The telco wants to see its average revenue per user (ARPU) rising significantly so that it can recover slightly from the losses it has been through. Vi must be very happy with Airtel right now. Bharti Airtel is paving the way for Vodafone Idea to follow. If you don't understand, let me add some perspective. Vodafone Idea can't alone increase tariffs. This is because if Jio and Airtel don't raise prices, the subscribers of Vi will jump to the networks of the other operators looking at their cheaper priced plans.

Vodafone Idea Following Airtel In Hiking Tariffs

Right now, Bharti Airtel is like a big brother for Vodafone Idea. The latter has been following the former in terms of releasing prepaid plans in the market and raising tariffs. Right now, only two operators seem to be desperate for tariff hikes. These are Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea; understandably so as both, the companies have been through some tough times. But while Airtel has seemed to recover well, Vi has been struggling. Vi already has a very small subscriber market share compared to Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. Thus, by hiking tariffs first, it wouldn't want to risk losing even more subscribers to its competitors. But Vi is always on edge looking at what Airtel is doing. If Airtel goes for a tariff hike, the same move is made by Vi as well. For example, Airtel recently announced that it would be discontinuing the Rs 49 plan; the same was done by Vodafone Idea as well. Even in terms of prepaid plans, Airtel and Vi’s plans don't look much different in terms of price and the data benefits they offer to the users. Vi can follow Airtel because it will help the telco financially. Airtel can move freely because some of its plans don't have any competition from Reliance Jio, and thus Vi can also follow Airtel without any hesitation.

Vodafone Idea Rooting for Tariff Hikes from Airtel

Because of what I said above, it is very understandable that Vodafone Idea would be rooting for Bharti Airtel to go ahead with the tariff hikes. This will help both the operators financially by improving their ARPU. Mittal has already said that Airtel won't shy away from raising tariffs. But the only question is when will that happen. If it happens too late, that would be very bad for Vodafone Idea. Vi wouldn't even be thinking about the long-term right now. The third-largest telecom operator must be wondering about how it can survive the short-term debt onslaught that's coming its way in the form of adjusted gross revenue dues and other statutory dues mixed with bank loans.

Bharti Airtel Will Soon Give 2GB 4G Data Without Any Additional Cost

Posted: 01 Sep 2021 02:10 PM PDT

Bharti Airtel has been one operator which has partnered with other companies, especially in the snacks and beverage sector, to offer complimentary data to the users purchasing the product of the other company. Now Bharti Airtel has done the same thing again and will soon offer users 2GB of free data without any additional cost. But for being eligible to receive this bonus data, users will have to purchase the select product the telco has partnered with and then use the code provided to claim the benefit. So if you want 2GB of bonus data from Airtel, here's what you can do.

Bharti Airtel Offering 2GB of Complimentary Data to These Users

Bharti Airtel will be relaunching its co-branding program with PepsiCo India. The latter is known for offering some of the most demanded snacks in India, including Lay's, Uncle Chipps, Doritos, Kurkure, Pepsi, Mountain Dew, 7UP, Tropicana, and more. Most of the names mentioned here are some very successful and heavily demanded products throughout the country. According to an ET Telecom report, the co-branding deal will again go live between both the companies this week itself and will stay in place until March 31, 2022. Under the deal, the prepaid users of the telco will be offered up to 2GB of complimentary data when they purchase any of the co-branded products. As per the publication's report, Airtel's name will be branded on products such as Uncle Chipps, Kurkure, Lay's, and Doritos. Users purchasing these co-branded products will need to search for the 'free data voucher code' printed inside the packet. Further, users can go to the 'My Coupon' section in the Airtel Thanks application and enter the voucher code they got from the packaging and get the benefit. There are surely going to be terms and conditions, and if we happen to get our hands on one of the co-branded items, we will surely bring the details to you.

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