Latest news with #RelianceJio
Time of India
2 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Tower growth may hit a plateau as 5G nears completion
Live Events (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel Mumbai: As telecom companies such as Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel near completion of 5G network expansion and curtail capital expenditure and tower rentals fall, tower companies are likely to see flattish growth in the next five years, with Vodafone Idea 's 5G rollouts and 4G coverage expansion likely to offer short-term support, according to new tower additions fell to 25,000 in 2024-25, the lowest since 2017-18, and are expected to dip further in this financial year, according to data from ICICI Securities. It comes after industry towers saw a deceleration in growth to 3.5% in the previous fiscal after a robust 8.1% annual expansion since additions of 5G BTS, or radios, which constitute a large part of network capex, also nosedived, to 8,000, just into the third year of 5G rollouts, from 141,000 in 2022-23. This indicates a conspicuous drop in 5G capex despite 5G BTS accounting for only 15.8% of the total. In contrast, 4G BTS' plunged after seven-eight years of analysts expect a lull for telecom tower companies in the next five years, as significant tower or BTS additions are likely only when telecom operators buy new spectrum bands to deploy 6G."5G is being deployed only on two spectrum bands - 700MHz and 3300MHz - implying industry BTS/tower should start stabilising," ICICI Securities said in a research report. "In the future, as 4G gets re-farmed, existing 4G spectrums and BTS would be deployed for 5G; therefore, keeping BTS/tower unchanged."Out of the nearly 800,000 telecom towers in India - the second largest in the world after China - about 275,000 are run by Brookfield-backed Altius Telecom Infrastructure Trust (formerly Data Infrastructure Trust), which counts telecom market leader Reliance Jio as its largest tenant. Around 250,000 are run by Indus Towers , which is majority owned by the country's second-largest telecom operator, Bharti Airtel, while other major tower companies include GTL Infrastructure , with 26,000 towers, and Ascend Telecom, with about 18,600 telecom sector capex has materially declined since 2022-23, when 5G rollouts started. While Reliance Jio was most aggressive in the first two years of rollout, Bharti Airtel's capex was calibrated over four years. Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea, which has just started its 5G rollout and 5G network expansion, is unlikely to move the needle on tower additions to that extent."After a good rollout by Bharti (Airtel) in last couple of years, we expect Bharti's tower adds to be in the range of 5-8K (down from an estimated 15,000-20,000 in the past two years)," BofA Securities said in a recent report. "We also expect industry tower adds to slow as 5G would require lesser traditional towers/more small cells, even as business from Vodafone Idea will remain strong for next 2-4 quarters."Credit research firm India Ratings has given a weak outlook for tower companies in this fiscal, as tenancies have continued to decline and margins have remained flat. Tower rentals fell sharply to '69,000 per tower per month in 2024-25 from '85,000 in 2021-22, data showed.
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
'Jio, Airtel, Vodafone Idea use analytical tools, AI algorithms to identify spam'
NEW DELHI: Incumbent telecom operators such as Reliance Jio , Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are using analytical tools and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to identify pesky messages and voice calls, and are aggressively working on a pilot program together with banks for the newly-launched consent management framework. 'Telecom service providers are utilising sophisticated analytical tools and artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms to detect unusual calling and messaging patterns indicative of spam or unauthorized marketing activities or fraud,' the Cellular Operators Association of India ( COAI ) Director-General SP Kochhar told ETTelecom. Delhi-based telco group represents Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Telcos are proactively identifying potential violators and blocking their communication swiftly, as a part of continuous analysis, he added. Using an artificial Intelligence (AI)-machine learning (ML) based platform allows operators to detect, prevent and suspend fraudulent communication. Nearly half of the messages received by about 1.10 billion subscribers are spam. 'As India races toward a $1 trillion digital economy, trust will be its true currency. With consumers receiving 8–10 spam calls a day, it's time for industry and regulators to come together to build a cleaner, safer, and more respectful telecom ecosystem, one that inspires lasting confidence in our digital future,' said Vinish Bawa, partner and telecom sector leader, PwC India. Kochhar added that the telecom carriers are addressing unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) from unregistered telemarketers (UTM) making calls or sending SMS using regular 10-digit numbers through multiple proactive and preventive measures. Following the recent amendment to TCCCPR, telcos are working closely with the regulator by implementing recommended modules such as consumer preference registration, complaint management, blocking traffic from unregistered headers, content and consent-based scrubbing, whitelisting and scrubbing of OTT links, call back numbers and email addresses, and deactivation of unused headers and templates. The 1600 number series is also being implemented by telecom operators to identify transactional and service-related voice calls, particularly from government entities and regulated businesses like banks and financial institutions. 'Telecom service providers are currently working on the pilot for the new consent framework along with banks under the supervision of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India ( Trai ),' he said. Under the initiative, the telecom watchdog validated the operational, technical, and regulatory aspects of a digital consent registration. The sector regulator, together with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), has partnered with select banks and telecom service providers to pilot the framework. These banks include State Bank of India (SBI), Punjab National Bank (PNB), Canara Bank, ICICI, HDFC, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. 'In an increasingly digitalised world, cross sectoral collaboration among regulators is crucial for coordinated enablement of services and protection of consumers from harm. In a digital first economy, collaboration among financial sector regulators, digital communication regulators and the security agencies becomes paramount. TRAI appreciates the swift collaboration being facilitated through JCoR in building a reliable and safer communication environment,' TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti on Tuesday said. Lahoti reiterated the need for practical safeguards that deter spam and fraud without placing undue burden on legitimate businesses, and urged sectoral regulators to accelerate implementation within their respective domains and monitor progress closely. Earlier, a Trai official said that the initiative aims to achieve a larger objective of safeguarding consumer interest and reinforcing trust in legitimate commercial communication. Last year, the watchdog launched a program to build a secure and interoperable digital consent registry, maintained by telcos, to acquire consumer consent digitally In February this year, the regulator amended the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018, to curb spam messages and calls.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Jio's self-built 5G stack draws global attention
A senior executive of Reliance Industries said the self-developed end-to-end 5G stack of Reliance Jio , the conglomerate's telecom arm, is gaining recognition globally and is a potential monetisable opportunity. 'It (Jio) is one of the leading deep tech companies in India with enormous amounts of innovation and technology development that we have done over the years,' Anshuman Thakur, senior vice president, Reliance Industries, said at the company's earnings call on Friday. Explore courses from Top Institutes in Select a Course Category Technology Cybersecurity others Finance Data Science Project Management Data Science Operations Management Product Management Artificial Intelligence MBA Public Policy Management Digital Marketing Others Data Analytics Healthcare Design Thinking healthcare PGDM CXO Leadership MCA Degree Skills you'll gain: Duration: 12 Weeks MIT xPRO CERT-MIT XPRO Building AI Prod India Starts on undefined Get Details Reliance Jio is an unlisted subsidiary of Jio Platforms, which holds Reliance Industries' telecom and digital businesses. 'Today this technology, this tech stack, the entire value chain, the whole software, hardware stack is only available with us and has been deployed at scale,' Thakur said. 'All the global operators are looking at us to see how we have done this so successfully. And then a whole bunch of initiatives on AI.' The latest addition to the telecom tech stack is the multi-point UBR technology for home connections, which global telcos have tried to replicate but failed, he said. UBR enables multiple home connections through a single 5G cell site targeting 50%-60% homes within a micro-cluster using a single transmission tower, bringing down deployment costs. 'We are the first to deploy UBR for UBR-based connectivity at scale. This is a technology that operators worldwide have tried to work on and have not had much success,' he said. UBR is the innovation child of Mimosa Networks , the US-based communications equipment maker which Jio Platforms acquired for $60 million through its wholly owned subsidiary Radisys Corporation in August 2023. Majority of Jio's UBR equipment are manufactured by US-based Sanmina Corporation, which has a joint venture with Reliance Industries in India. During the June quarter, Jio crossed the milestone of 20 million home connections, 7.4 million of which were AirFiber FWA (fixed wireless access) connections scaled with UBR tech. The telco now has 82% market share in 5G FWA connections in India. Analysts are bullish on Jio's strong customer additions and cost benefits from technology ownership after Q1 and have raised Jio's enterprise valuation. 'Jio's 5G tech stack, core, software, hardware and BSS/OSS are all in-house and proprietary,' brokerage firm IIFL Securities said in a report. 'This enables quicker revenue ramp-up due to lower dependence of vendors, lower costs due to licence fee savings, customisation/scale-up of configuration based on requirements, and potential monetisation by selling to global telcos.' IIFL has raised Jio's valuation to $134.2 billion (Rs11.2 lakh crore) from $133.9 billion it had said earlier. Equity research firm Jefferies also raised its revenue estimates by 1-4% to factor in the changes to subscriber assumptions and lower access/network costs. 'We believe RJio remains well-placed to deliver 18%/22% CAGR in revenues/EBITDA over FY25-28, given rising tariffs in mobile and scaleup of home broadband business . We raise our EV (enterprise valuation) for Jio to US $146 billion (Rs 12.19 lakh crore) on the EBITDA upgrade and roll-over to Jun-27,' Jefferies said in a report. Jio also holds the highest number of patents on 6G. Jio Cloud , launched last year, offering 100GB free cloud storage, now has 35 million consumers, Thakur said during the call. On Monday, rival telecom operator Bharti Airtel 's shares ended 0.4% higher on the BSE at Rs 1,908.75, giving it a market cap of more than Rs 10.88 lakh crore.
Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Jio Q1: Brokerages spotlight strong net adds, FWA-led broadband gains; say APRU lift modest
New Delhi: Reliance Jio turned in Q1 report card of robust subscriber addition and 5G user tally with strong traction seen in home broadband segment, though growth in average revenue per user was modest, according to analysts. The big takeaways from the April-June quarter numbers for them were better-than-expected revenue growth, a sharp rise in net adds to about 10 million post-tariff-hike digestion, and 5G users surpassing 210 million. "Overall, healthy results with strong subscriber addition and EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation) expansion, despite flattish ARPUs," UBS said in its report. On 5G, Jio is the largest operator globally in terms of data traffic, UBS said, citing the subscriber base of 210 plus million users. "AirFiber continues to see strong demand and is the largest FWA (Fixed Wireless Access) service globally with 82% market share in India and a subscriber base of 7.4 million," it said. In Q1FY26, Jio added 2.6 million home subscribers (1.8 million using FWA) with fixed broadband base now reaching 20 million (7.4 million from AirFiber), it further pointed out. JP Morgan said that the revenue was up a "stronger-than-expected" 3% sequentially led by 1.2% growth in ARPU, addition of 7.3 million wireless subscribers and 2.6 million fixed subscribers in the quarter. For Jio, Q1 (April-June) was a robust quarter with strong net adds and "modest" ARPU (average revenue per user) growth, it said. Citing Jio's ARPU rise of 1.2% quarter on quarter to ₹209, it observed, the increase was a partial flow-through of tariff hikes that should end this quarter. "Jio has historically taken the longest to show the full impact of tariff increases due to a high proportion of users on 3m/6m/annual plans that have queued multiple periods of plans," JP Morgan note said. Notably, Jefferies has raised its FY25-27 subscriber estimates by up to two% to pick up mobile subscribers as well as higher FWA subscribers. It expects RJio's mobile subscribers to reach 517 million and home broadband subscribers to reach 38 million by Mar-27. "Reliance Jio's 1Q results missed estimates due to lower-than-expected ARPUs and higher depreciation and interest costs. Subscriber additions and margins surprised positively and should support revenue and earnings growth in the coming quarters," the Jefferies report said. Jio Platforms - the entity that houses Reliance Industries' telecom and digital businesses - on Friday reported a net profit of ₹7,110 crore for the June quarter, a nearly 25% rise over the year-ago period, its numbers bolstered by customer adds, improved realisations per user and data traffic growth. Revenue from operations jumped 19% to ₹35,032 crore, driven by strong subscriber momentum across mobility and homes, increased customer engagement and growth in the digital services business, according to the earnings statement by parent Reliance Industries. Quarterly Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, and Amortization or EBITDA at ₹18,135 crore was up 23.9% year-on-year. Average Revenue Per User - a key vector - increased to ₹208.8 against ₹206.2 in the March quarter and ₹181.7 in the June quarter of FY25. Reliance Jio Infocomm - the telecom unit - posted a 23.2% increase in net profit at ₹6,711 crore in Q1FY26, while revenue from operations grew 16.6% to ₹30,882 crore. PTI
Mint
4 days ago
- Business
- Mint
Unlicensed band radio: What it means and why it could be a low-cost fix for home broadband woes
Ever wondered how you manage to stream Netflix, attend Zoom calls, scroll through Instagram, and play online games—all at the same time? It's your home Wi-Fi working quietly in the background to keep everything running smoothly. Until now, internet has reached your home mainly through fibre-optic cables or the recently introduced fixed wireless access (FWA), which uses the 5G network. Now, Reliance Jio has introduced a new technology–unlicensed band radio (UBR)–to its backend systems to make home broadband 'faster and more efficient". Mint takes a look at Jio's new technology for home broadband, and whether it will benefit users, and impact other telecom companies. What is UBR tech? At the earnings call with analysts on 18 June, Reliance Jio said it is the first to deploy point-to-multipoint UBR technology for home broadband. The technology works like a radio station, sending internet wirelessly from a central antenna placed on a tower to multiple homes or buildings at the same time. This is called unlicensed as it uses free radio waves or open spectrum, such as the 5 GHz band that is allowed for licence-free use. Jio claims that this proprietary technology of the company has helped it accelerate the pace of monthly home connections to 1 million during the April-June quarter. The company said it has reached 20 million connected premises via home broadband using a combination of fibre, its AirFiber offerings and UBR. Why is Jio taking a different tack for home broadband? Jio is choosing a different route for home broadband because using only 5G and fibre has limits and is costly, it says. 5G networks are already busy with mobile users, and adding home broadband puts extra pressure on them, the company said. There's also limited 5G spectrum (radio space), which makes it hard to scale or customize services for home users. On the other hand, the fibre is prone to physical damage. 'Cost-wise, also, it (UBR) is more economical. Last-mile fibre is more expensive. So, in all those regards, it is going to be much more sustainable," said Anshuman Thakur, senior vice president at Jio Platforms, during the earnings call. According to Thakur, operators worldwide tried using the technology but did not succeed owing to less demand and therefore no scale. However, India is a fairly large market with over 300 million homes that will require broadband services, he said, adding that Jio's target of 100 million home connections seems much more doable. Since the reliance is on unlicensed spectrum, one of the biggest advantages for Jio would be to save on the spectrum usage charges (SUC). What does it mean for consumers? For users, UBR promises good fibre-like speeds of over 1 GB per second, without disruption in service due to cable cuts, according to Jio. It said unlike 5G network, the technology supports very high-end multicast applications. The telecom operator does not see any material difference on the consumer premise equipment (CPE) or boxes through which the internet enters homes or buildings. The device price will be similar to FWA, Jio's Thakur said, adding that the network equipment would be economical for the company. Analysts, however, said there could be some cost savings for the consumers on the CPE. 'This is a user-friendly technology. Currently, the cost of CPE used in FWA is high, but Wi-Fi routers are generally cheaper, and UBR uses those routers," said Satya N. Gupta, former principal advisor at the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). According to Gupta, home broadband services over UBR would improve service quality and reduce costs. What does this mean for competition? Besides Jio, only Bharti Airtel is using both 5G FWA and fibre to connect homes with broadband. Airtel has not yet shared plans to use UBR technology for providing home broadband services. Analysts, however, said it depends on the operators' internal strategies in terms of what is driving maximum cost savings for them, and their spectrum deployment strategies, while ensuring service quality. 'This technology is largely seen as a way to save on costs for the companies," Gupta said, adding that even Airtel may implement the same going forward. 'Jio has scaled FWA well with 6.5 million subscribers and its ability to use Unlicensed spectrum (UBR) should support further FWA subscriber adds with limited impact on its mobile network," said brokerage house Jefferies in a note dated 18 July. Analysts at Jefferies expect Jio's mobile subscribers to reach 517 million and home broadband subscribers to reach 38 million by March 2027. What are the challenges? According to experts, there could be some technical challenges, such as interference and congestion issues, once it scales. 'We cannot control interference in the unlicensed band. This spectrum is going to be common for all, and if you are giving broadband connectivity…and someone or some service is interfering with the channel at that time where the transmission is taking place, the speeds can go down," said Parag Kar, an independent telecom analyst in a video analysis on YouTube. According to Kar, even as Jio will be able to double the capacity by using the Wi-Fi band but if the network gets loaded, the service quality will be affected. Therefore, risks such as maintaining quality of services over the long term, as it will be difficult to guarantee quality service owing to interference challenges, experts said.
