I had nothing to do with 2G spectrum pricing: Pranab Mukherjee

Finance ministerPranab Mukherjee on Saturday rejected suggestions that he had anything to do with the pricing of 2G spectrum and hit out at those spreading "disinformation" on the issue.

In 2007 when he was external affairs minister, Mukherjee had been appointed Chairman of a Group of Ministers (GoM) on vacation of 3G spectrum which, he said, had nothing to do with 2G and its pricing.

The GoM was for vacation of spectrum by the defence and para-military forces and the communication ministry for mobile telephony and other issues. Pricing was not part of the mandate of the GoM, he said.

"In a nutshell, I had nothing to do with 2G," he said in an interview during which he deprecated attempts to spread "a lot of disinformation" on 2G targeting ministers

ICICI Bank takes 29.3% stake in GTL after share pledge

ICICI Bank has assumed a 29.3 percent stake in debt-laden telecoms infrastructure companyGTL after taking over shares pledged by its promoter, GTL said in a stock exchange statement on Friday.

The shares were acquired on Thursday, when GTL's stock ended at Rs 68.2 on the Bombay Stock Exchange. At that value, ICICI recovered about Rs 194 crore ($44 million) of the Rs 500 crore it is owed under loans to GTL, according to IFR, which first reported the transaction.

GTL said in a recent stock exchange filing that its promoter, Global Holding Corp, a unit of GTL Chairman Manoj Tirodkar's Global Group, had pledged 99.1 percent of its 52 percent stake in the company to lenders, according to IFR.

Syndicate Bank has a similar claim over the remaining pledged shares, a source told IFR.

GTL and another group company,GTL Infrastructure Ltd, are embroiled in a debt restructuring exercise with 25 lenders, IFR said. GTL has debts of about Rs 6,000 crore andGTL Infrastructure has debts of about Rs 11,000 crore, according to IFR.

In June, GTL and GTL Infrastructure appointed SBI Capital Markets to assess their financial situation and obligations, following a battering of their stock prices the previous week.

A spokesman for ICICI, India's second-largest bank, could not immediately be reached for comment on Friday.

Earlier on Friday, Economic Times said rival telecom tower firm Viom Networks had made a Rs 7,500 crore ($1.69 billion) offer to buy GTL Infrastructure.

Later in the day, GTL Infrastructure said, "there are many aspirants who want to acquire Company's assets or partner with the Company," but said there had not been any formal discussions with Viom Networks.

Viom is a joint venture between telecoms carrier Tata Teleservices and tower firm Quippo.

Shares of GTL closed up by 10.15 percent at Rs 74.90 on Friday, and GTL Infrastructure closed up 9.09 percent at Rs 15 a share in a weak Mumbai market.

GTL shares have lost about 84 percent from their year peak last September.

Last year, GTL Infrastructure struck a deal to take over the telecom tower business ofReliance Communications, which would have created a company with an enterprise value of $11 billion. The deal collapsed when the companies failed to agree on terms.

A Raja drags the PM and the home minister into 2G scam

Jailed former telecom minister A Raja on Monday tried to drag the PM and the home minister into the quagmire of the 2G scam, saying they were party to the case.

The telcos' success in mopping up thousands of crores by offering fresh equity for licences and spectrum they got from Raja for Rs 1,600 crore forms the basis of the charge that the government lost revenue. It is also the main ground on which the CAG and the CBI had basedtheirestimatesof actualvalue of spectrum. Swan and Unitech between them raised Rs 7,100 crore for Uninor and Etisalat respectively in exchange for fresh equity.

The burden of Raja's argument in the court on Monday was that he was merely implementing a policy thatwasfoundtobekosherbyboth the PM and Chidambaram. The reference to the role of the PM and finance minister had been anticipated, with clear indications that Raja will ramp up his defence. BJP, again predictably, jumped on the opportunity, with party president Nitin Gadkari alleging that the entire government was involved in the scam. The charge was rebutted by Congress, as well as Union ministers - P Chidambaram and Kapil Sibal - setting the stage for continuing confrontation inside Parliament during the monsoon session beginning next week.

Raja maintained he "only inherited and didn't create policy", pointing out that his predecessors, including those from the NDA government,didn'tauctionspectrum. "If policy pursued by me was wrong, then all former telecom ministers since 1993 should also be in jail with me," he said, opposing the framing of charges.

"As telecom minister,Arun Shourie distributed 26 licences whileDayanidhi Maran distributed 25 and I (Raja) distributed 122 licences. Numbers make no difference, however, it is to be noted that none of them auctioned spectrum," he said. Raja said, "If I am following the law; I am not liable to be prosecuted. In fact, I should be rewarded." Due to his policies cellphone call rates came down and they became affordable to even a 'rickshawala', Raja claimed.

Alleging that CBI had engaged in a "pick-and-choose policy", Raja questioned the logic behind booking certain corporates while leaving out others. "The CBI says that when DB Realty gave its shares (in Swan Telecom) to bring in money, it amounted to sale and so is the case with Unitech (Wireless). But when Tata Teleservices give its shares to bring in FDI, it, according to the CBI, does not amount to sale." Raja's counsel asked, "Who is a better businessman-SanjayChandraof Unitech or Ratan Tata of Tata Teleservices?Andthentheysaywekeptthem (Tata) out of Delhi circle." He also pointed out, "S-Tel also earned Rs 2,230 crore by diluting its shares but that was not considered as sale by the CBI."

"How could you give my custody to CBI for my further interrogation regarding Loop which was given 21 licences in the same batch as the other co-accused (Swan Telecom and Unitech Wireless)." The former minister alleged the CBI was making this a case of multiple offences against him which would deprive him of the chance to take the legal remedy of bail as he would be trapped in one case or the other

India adds 8.6 million GSM subscribers in June-11

India's GSM subscriber base grew by 1.45 percent in June with the addition of 8.58 million mobile phone users, of whom Bharti Airtel alone signed up over 2.12 million customers, data shows.

The total number of GSM subscribers in the country crossed 598.78 million as against 590.2 million in May, according to the data released by Cellular Operators Association of India ( COAI )).

Bharti Airtel now has a market share of 28.26 percent with 169.19 million subscribers.

Vodafone followed with an addition of 2.09 million subscribers, taking its total users to 141.52 million.

Idea Cellular added 1.35 million subscribers to take its total subscribers base to 95.11 million.

State-run telecom operators Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd added 8,42,723 and 1,597 customers respectively taking their total user base to 88.46 million and 5.24 million.

Uninor added 943,924 to have a total of 26.33 million subscribers.

Uninor looks for loan to meet day-to-day operational costs

The dispute between JV partners Telenor and Unitech over raising funds for their Indian operations, which provides mobile services under their Uninor brand, has forced the telco to take short loans from abroad to meet its day-to-day operational costs, its managing director Sigve Brekke said. The loans are guaranteed by parent firm Telenor.

"Following the 2G scam and the controversies associated with the sector, the debt market in India has dried up completely for mobile phone companies. We had put in 6,100 crore for a 67.25% stake into the JV, whose total funding requirements are about 15,000 crore. The plan was to raise an additional 8,000 - 9,000 crore through debt, and since this option is no longer available, the board of Uninor had decided to go in for a rights issues to meet the funding requirements of the company," explained Brekke.

But earlier this year, Unitech had obtained a stay on the rights issue in a Gurgaon district court, a decision that was upheld by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Last week, the Supreme Court scrapped the Punjab & Haryana High Court order that prevented the company from going ahead with the rights issue to raise about 6,700 crore and directed the high court to rehear the pleas of Unitech and Telenor. He refused to comment, but said that 'discussions were on to resolve the issue'.

Brekke said the funding issues had impacted Uninor's expansion plans, while adding that the company had availed short-term debt from the international market, that was guaranteed by Telenor, to sustain its daily operations. Uninor, which currently offers mobile services in only 13 of the 22 telecom circles or regions, had put off expansion plans for several months now.

According to the Uninor MD, the expansion plans were also put on hold as the company was 'struggling with organizational and distribution issues in the four Southern markets - Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka and AP'. "It was crucial to step back and get our business model right, especially regarding distribution," he added.


After having learnt its lessons, Uninor is now working to launch services in three new circles - Haryana, Punjab and Madhya Pradesh.

Telenor entered India in 2009 when it bought a controlling stake in Unitech Wireless, the telecoms arm of realty firm Unitech Wireless. But Unitech Wireless is one of the companies which has been charge sheeted by the Central Bureau of Investigation in the 2G spectrum scam and its former Chairman Mr Sanjay Chandra is in jail, one of the accused, is in jail.

Brekke admitted that the company was concerned about the possibility that its mobile permits in India could be cancelled as an outcome of the ongoing 2G trial.

"We have nothing to hide and our main shareholder, the Norwegian government, is in India for the long run. We came in much later after Unitech was given the mobile permits and are cooperating with all the different investigating agencies. We have invested over 6,000 crore, have 26 million customers and about 2500 employees - I don't see how these factors cannot be taken into account before any decision on cancellation is taken," he added.

June-11 :: Bharti adds 2.12 mn, Vodafone adds 2.09 mn, Idea adds 1.35 mn

Bharti Airtel , India's top mobile carrier, added 2.12 million mobile subscribers in June, taking its total to 169.2 million, data from an industry body showed on Friday.

Vodafone's Indian unit, which is the country's third-biggest mobile carrier, signed up 2.09 million mobile subscribers in June to have a total of about 141.5 million, the Cellular Operators Association of India said.

Fifth-ranked Idea Cellular gained 1.35 million mobile subscribers last month to have a total of about 95.1 million, while Telenor's India unit added 0.94 million users, boosting its total to 26.3 million.

MTNL to rejig marketing, customer care operations in Delhi & Mumbai to achieve 25% revenue jump

State-run Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) is about to overhaul its marketing and customer care operations in Delhi and Mumbai, following a directive from communication minister Kapil Sibal asking the management to achieve a 25% jump in revenues by March 2012.

This effectively means, MTNL will need to crank up nearly an extra Rs.1,000 crore in additional revenues over the next nine months. "We did almost Rs.4,000 crore of revenues in FY11 and the telecom minister now wants MTNL to achieve a minimum 25% revenue growth by the year-end from its full spectrum of services, which means nearly an additional Rs.1,000 crore by Marchend 2012," said an MTNL director who did not wish to be named.

"In the immediate term, we have told our marketing and customer care units in Delhi and Mumbai to focus more on the lucrative enterprise business and also target a significant improvement in call completion rates in our GSM networks," said the official quoted above.

The MTNL leadership concedes meeting the higher revenue target will not be a cake-walk, given that the loss-making telco is struggling to keep pace with nimble private sector rivals like Bharti Airtel , Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular in the biggest telecom zones of Delhi and Mumbai where it operates.

So much so, MTNL sufferedRs.2,826 crore net loss in FY11, which is 8.27% higher than the earlier financial year. Dismal call completion rates are at the heart of MTNL's problems, which has resulted in a poor appetite for its mobile services in recent months.

A recent Trai report reportedly indicated that MTNL added fewer than 400 new mobile subscribers in April 2011, which is a far cry to the hundreds of thousands of new customer acquisitions happening across private mobile networks.

"Internal targets cannot be shared, but we are a looking at a double-digit improvement in MTNL's call completion rates across its landline and mobile networks in Mumbai and Delhi. We will also bolster our marketing & customer care divisions to reach out faster to potential retail, wholesale and enterprise customers. We believe this can lead to some improvement in new customer acquisitions across our landline and mobile services businesses in the near future," said another MTNL executive.

However, executives concede that the telecoms PSU is in the throes of a serious funds crunch, especially after the Rs.7,000 crore of bridge loans it took to buy costly 3G and BWA airwaves in Delhi and Mumbai last year. Its stressed financial state can ease somewhat if the Department of Telecom or DoT agrees to foot MTNL's near Rs.390 crore annual pension payout bill.

"Since MTNL's employees are essentially DoT people who were absorbed in two stages - November 1998 and October 2000 - we are hopeful the telecom department will handle the pension payouts in future. We are awaiting DoT response to our proposal," said a top company executive.

A portion of MTNL's bridge loans have been restructured. "But investments in new projects can only happen after we clear our existing debt. The telco is in the process of taking another Rs.1,500 crore of secured loans from private and public sector banks to prune its debt and meet long-term capex requirements," said he added.

Like BSNL, Sibal wants the MTNL management to take the tough calls and make circle heads in Mumbai and Delhi financially accountable. Indications are that future budget allocations for MTNL's Delhi and Mumbai circles will be linked to revenues achieved.

At present, Mumbai circle generates 60% of MTNL's revenues while Delhi generates the balance 40%

Relief from pesky calls, SMSes in sight; DoT to release number

Finally, over 800 million telecom users may get relief from unwarranted calls and SMSes, with the DoT slated to announce a dedicated landline number series that can be used to identify telemarketers within a month.

"The Department of Telecom has sorted the issue to allot the number series for landline consumers with the security agencies. Now its a matter of another one month that consumers will get much needed relief from the unsolicited calls and SMSes," a senior Telecom Ministry official said.

Telecom regulator Trai, to put a check on unsolicited calls and SMSes, had asked the DoT to allocate an easily identifiable number series for telemarketing companies. While a series beginning with '140' was allocated to mobile services, a separate identifiable number series for landline numbers hasn't been allocated yet.

The DoT had pointed out various technical, billing and security concerns in issuing a number series for landline services.

A call from a landline number can be identified based on the STD code -- the initial digits and then levels (digits following STD codes), which differ from exchange to exchange within a city.

In case an identifiable series of '140' is used, it will impact the numbering system being used at present for allocating new connections.

Adding a 3-digit series to landline numbers will take the total digits to 13 and to transmit such numbers on telecom networks, especially for caller line identification, BSNL and MTNL need to install new equipment in exchanges.

Also, it will be difficult for security agencies to track calls, as it will display an uniform code instead of a STD code for connections across the country.

Last December, Trai had come out with recommendations, 'The Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations , 2010' to curb the menace of pesky calls and SMSes.

Since then, two deadlines have been missed for implementing the guidelines in view of the absence of an identified number series.

Trai has recommended a maximum fine of Rs 2.5 lakh on telemarketing companies for making unsolicited calls or SMSes to a consumer registered under the national customer preference register -- a modified version of Trai's Do Not Call Registry list.

The subscriber may choose to be under the 'Fully Blocked' category, which is akin to the 'Do Not Call Registry'. The user can also choose the 'Partially Blocked' category, in which case he will receive SMSes in the categories chosen by him

Bharti Airtel may merge verticals, changes expected in over 3000 job positions

Bharti Airtel is likely to announce merger of its DTH , Telemedia and Mobility Division , say reports. Sunil Mittal , founder and CMD of Bharti Airtel is likely to make restructuring announcement today. The company may announce changes of over 3000 job positions.

The stock reacted positively and was at Rs 396.95, up Rs 13.55 or 3.53 per cent on the NSE. It touched a high of Rs 397.80 and low of Rs 383.55 in trade so far.

Bharti's move could provide the trigger for similar action at rivals, many of whom are battling identical issues-debt burden, slowing growth and high marketing spends amid cut-price tariffs. Several Bharti executives and others familiar with the company's plans told ET that managers had been told to cut positions in their teams and that the merger would create large-scale redundancies.

Bharti, in its response to specific queries sent by ET last month, confirmed the restructuring, but said it would have "minimal impact on people". "As and when any change is planned, the same will be done in the interest of all stakeholders and shared in an open and transparent manner."

The company said it had pioneered what it called the "strategic outsourcing model", in which key functions such as networks, technology and customer services are managed not by the company, but by specialist vendors. "Such initiatives wherever and whenever appropriate will find favour at Bharti. Scale and agility backed by synergies and business efficiencies have been the hallmark of Bharti Airtel's growth story.

Indeed, its outsourcing strategy, which helped it ramp up operations aggressively during its growth phase while keeping a tight grip on costs in a intensely competitive market with cut-price tariffs, has been acclaimed and adopted by telecom operators around the world. The last such big transfer of employees happened in 2009-10 when Alcatel Lucent took on its rolls more than 4,000 employees from Bharti as part of a deal to manage its landline and fibre businesses. Analysts said the latest restructuring was necessary for Bharti.

"It is a defensive step to cut costs and increase profitability, margins and also sustain its revenue market share," said an analyst with a Mumbai-based brokerage house, requesting anonymity. The company, which has dominated India's mobile revolution for much of the last decade, has been of late struggling to repeat its performance of yesteryears.