
India needs more telecom unicorns, says DoT secretary Neeraj Mittal
'Deep tech is essential for the country's growth. The only difference between deep tech and tech is that you need patient capital, and telecom would fall in that category for various reasons,' Mittal said.
During his address at the Matrix Global Summit 2025 on 6G technology, the DoT Secretary also noted that while telecom may not be an easy space to innovate in, the government is attempting to reduce the risk through the Telecom Technology Development Fund (TTDF), particularly in the early stages. He added that India needs several unicorns in the telecom space. With the department targeting at least 10% of global patents in 6G technology ahead of the World Radiocommunication Conference in 2027, Mittal said, 'There are more expectations from institutions that patents will come from them, from research faculties, IITs, NITs, and all these institutions which are participating. We have a call for proposals on 6G, and we hope that it will result in a lot of papers.'
During a similar discussion, Reliance Jio's senior vice president, Satish Jamadagni, underscored that despite building a homegrown 5G stack, true export viability hinges on domestic chip production. Simply having a cost advantage will not 'help in selling,' he said. 'When we missed the 4G bandwagon and jumped straight to 5G, the projected technology isn't yet at its best. When we talk about exporting a 5G stack, if you don't make the chip in the country, it's not really selling,' he added. Elevate your knowledge and leadership skills at a cost cheaper than your daily tea. Inside TechM CEO's 'baptism by fire' and the blaze he still needs to douse
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Time of India
23 minutes ago
- Time of India
Demand for 5G spectrum among private enterprises weak: DoT survey
The direct allocation of spectrum for private 5G networks faces a lukewarm response. The Department of Telecommunications conducted a demand study. It attracted few applications with incomplete details. Telecom service providers oppose direct allocation. They suggest using telco-allocated airwaves. The Broadband India Forum questions the need for another study. They cite previous interest from companies like Infosys and Tata. Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads The government's renewed push to allocate spectrum directly for private 5G networks has turned out to be a damp squib with just a few enterprises showing interest, people aware of the details told ET.A demand study conducted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to understand the spectrum requirement for direct allocation attracted only a few applications, including incomplete ones that didn't have the requisite details, they said."We will study and take a call around direct allocation of spectrum for captive private networks," an official said on condition of anonymity. Telecom service providers have been opposing the move to give spectrum directly to enterprises, arguing that such private networks can be rolled out through airwaves allocated to technology industry, on its part, is questioning the need for a fresh demand study as one such study was done a couple of years ago."Another demand study for private 5G seems a pointless exercise, serving only to further delay the introduction of a product globally proven with thousands of CNPN ( captive non-public networks ) and India trailing by three years," Broadband India Forum (BIF) president TV Ramachandran told ET."India needs CNPN for Industry 4.0, digitalisation and improved global competitiveness in many sectors," he previous demand study drew applications from over 20 players including Infosys Tata Power , GMR, and Larsen & Toubro, but nothing much happened after time, however, there was no such interest from these DoT in June 2022 had notified guidelines for establishment of CNPNs or private networks. These guidelines allow enterprises to set up their own captive private 4G or 5G networks by either utilising spectrum from telcos or direct assignment from the DoT felt there was a need for another demand study as certain spectrum bands that were initially identified for direct assignment to private networks lack device ecosystem."During a recent analysis, it was observed that the device ecosystem for CNPN is mostly available in IMT bands and 5G technology has also considerably advanced with different use cases," DoT said while seeking applications for the demand study. "Also, system integrators are keenly interested in establishing CNPN-based networks," it BIF felt demand for such a private network, for example, at Maruti , can only be singular because of relevance only to Maruti for internal efficiency improvements and a captive network with no services to the public and revenue therefrom."Hence, no need for demand study, or onerous license. Spectrum should be given directly to enterprises at cost to just cover the cost of administration and regulation and no further delay to boost the economy," Ramachandran private networks, corporate houses can set up their own Wi-Fi and data networks instead of taking the services from a telecom service provider as is the norm telcos, however, feel direct spectrum allocation to enterprises is not tenable because of various reasons pertaining to the country's telecom ecosystem, national revenue, and security architecture.
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Business Standard
3 hours ago
- Business Standard
Vi Q1 loss widens to ₹6,608 cr; COO Kishore to replace Moondra as CEO
Vodafone Idea's (VI's) losses widened to Rs 6,608 crore in the quarter ended June 2025, compared to Rs 6,432 crore in the same period last year, but narrowed sequentially from Rs 7,166 crore in the quarter ended March 2025. Revenue rose nearly 5 per cent year-on-year to Rs 11,164 crore in the June quarter, up from Rs 10,764 crore a year earlier, and increased sequentially from Rs 11,228 crore in the March quarter. Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation, and amortisation (Ebitda) rose to Rs 4,612 crore, up 9.7 per cent from Rs 4,204 crore. However, the telco's finance cost rose 6.7 per cent to Rs 5,928 crore from Rs 5,519 crore in the same quarter last year. Average revenue per user (ARPU) rose to Rs 165 in the quarter, up 13 per cent from Rs 146 in the year-ago period and from Rs 164 in the March quarter, aided by tariff revisions and customer upgrades. Despite the increase, VI's ARPU remains the lowest among peers, with Bharti Airtel leading at Rs 250 in the June quarter. The country's third-largest carrier by subscribers appointed Chief Operating Officer Abhijit Kishore as its next chief executive officer, succeeding Akshaya Moondra, whose three-year term ends on 18 August. Kishore has been with the company since 2015 in various roles. In a statement to the BSE on Thursday, the Aditya Birla Group company said it was in discussions with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to seek relief on adjusted gross revenue (AGR) payments in equal monthly instalments from March-end 2026. VI said it was also in talks with lenders for waivers. Outstanding debt from banks stands at Rs 1,944.5 crore, while deferred payment obligations for spectrum purchased in auctions — payable over 20 years until FY44 — and AGR dues payable until 2031 total Rs 1.99 trillion. 'The group's ability to settle the above liabilities is dependent on further support from the DoT on the AGR matter, fund-raise through equity and debt, and generation of cash flow from operations. Based on current efforts, the group believes that it would be able to get DoT support, successfully arrange funds, and generate cash flow from operations,' the carrier said. The telco must pay Rs 16,428 crore as AGR instalments by March 2026 and Rs 2,641 crore in deferred spectrum payments by June 2026. 'We continue to invest in capex, and to support our broader capex plans of Rs 500–550 billion, we remain engaged with lenders to secure debt financing,' Moondra said. In the March 2025 quarter, VI's board approved raising Rs 20,000 crore through another follow-on public offer (FPO), private placement including qualified institutional placement, or any other permissible mode. The telco had issued India's largest FPO of Rs 18,000 crore in April 2024, followed by preferential share issues to promoters and vendors Nokia and Ericsson. VI's promoters had also contributed Rs 4,000 crore, in addition to Rs 1,980 crore raised from Vodafone Group PLC entities via a preferential issue in January 2025. Having launched 5G services in March, the telco said it was offering high-speed data in 22 cities across 13 circles, with plans to expand coverage to key cities in all 17 circles by September 2025. Subscriber loss was limited to 0.5 million in the quarter, taking its customer base to 197.7 million, including 127.4 million 4G and 5G users. VI added that its strategic partnership with AST SpaceMobile aims to deliver direct-to-device satellite broadband connectivity in remote areas without terrestrial networks.


Time of India
11 hours ago
- Time of India
Policy for data centers' land, power usage to support industry: CBRE's Anshuman Magazine
NEW DELHI: Policy interventions to ensure availability of fundamentals – land, water, and energy – would be a deciding factor in driving the proliferation of data centers nationwide, according to real estate consulting firm CBRE . 'Land is a common challenge for every real estate development, including data center s. But the bigger challenge is getting the power to run a data center. So, the state or the city may not have the kind of power required by data centers. That is why hyperscalers and other larger data centers are being established in major cities first,' Anshuman Magazine , chairman & CEO (India, Southeast Asia, Middle East & Africa), CBRE, told ETTelecom in an interview. The rapid advancements in cloud, generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), and low-latency applications are also causing the data centers to guzzle water to keep the computing infrastructure running at optimum temperatures for sustained performance. 'The data centers also require a lot of water because they generate heat. So it needs cooling. The construction of a data center itself is expensive and the technology, including the racks, as well as prices, have increased,' Magazine said. 'Lately, the power generation in India is improving, and that will enable us to put a larger capacity data center, which will benefit the entire industry.' Vipin Jain, president (datacenter operations), CtrlS Datacenters, told ETTelecom in a recent interview that more efforts are needed beyond allotting lands at market rates and waiving stamp duty to support the greenfield data center projects. 'If we have to look at this industry in total, the government should look into whether it can develop data center cities that have ample power. They have to consider the use of unclear power and renewable energy,' he said. The top executive's comments close on the heels of the Ministry of Electronics and IT ( MeitY ) restarting consultations on the draft national data center policy to attract investments in this sector, ET reported in its August 11, 2025, edition . The policy, which aims to encourage the establishment of data centers through single-window permissions, streamlining approvals, providing incentives, and setting up four data center economic zones (DCEZs), was announced in 2020 but never implemented. CBRE estimates India's data center capacity to increase from 1.27GW in 2024 to 1.76GW in 2025, with the real estate footprint growing from 19 million square feet to 26 million square feet. Mumbai (50%), followed by Chennai (17%), Delhi NCR (12%), Bengaluru (9%), and Pune (6%), are expected to be the top data center markets (by capacity) this year, according to the American commercial real estate services and investment firm. Last year, investors remained bullish and committed nearly $20 billion in data centers, benefitting Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Telangana, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal, as per CBRE. 'Mumbai and Chennai are the major data center hubs due to undersea cabling connections. That is why more data centers have come there. Going forward, there will be data centers everywhere. Certainly, parts of South India and western Mumbai will have an advantage,' the executive said.