Anil Ambani, Sunil Mittal, Kumat Mangalam Birla likely to meet Sibal on contentious telecom issues
The telecom minister Kapil Sibal is likely to meet the top telecom bigwigs like Anil Ambani Sunil Mittal, Kumat Mangalam Birla and Vittorio Colao on Tuesday to deliberate on some of the issues which have resulted into a tussle between the government and the telecos. The issue which are likely to be discussed are the one- time fee for the extra spectrum, the 3G roaming pacts and merger and acquisition norms. The meeting is believed to be taking place in the backdrop of the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s response to the present concerns of the telecom sector some time back. The telecos, it may be recalled, are seeking redressal of these issues before the new telecom policy unfolds in June his year. Sometime back the leading telecom service operators including Tata Teleservices, Rcom, Sistema-Shyam and Uninor in a letter to the telecom minister Kapil Sibal had called the government’s proposal to charge the new telcos for additional spectrum as ‘discriminatory’. Expressing concerns over the proposed move to charge for additional spectrum beyond 4.4 MHz, these operators said that they have an agreement with government for allotment of 6.2MHz against one time fee and all of a sudden one party has changed the valid legal contract which will lead to financial implications for them.

Nokia Siemens launches unified billing and charging solutions for Vodafone
Nokia Siemens Networks on Monday launched unified billing and charging solutions for India subscribers. This will help Vodafone India boost its data subscriber take-up, capture new revenue streams, and reduce operating costs through simplified operations. Unified charging and billing will also allow data subscribers to enjoy greater transparency of their usage and spending patterns with real-time notifications to their handsets. Speaking about this innovative system, Vishant Vora, chief technology officer at Vodafone India said, “As a whole new generation of subscribers uses mobile data services more frequently, our aim is to better understand data consumption patterns and accordingly offer truly customized data tariffs. As our long standing partner, Nokia Siemens Networks clearly understands our needs. Its unified charging and billing portfolio will help us launch new, flexible data tariff plans across multiple consumer touch-points.”

Wipro to take its overseas hiring to 50%
Wipro is planning to increase its global hiring in ITR services in a big way. According to Wipro chairman Azim Premji the company would hire 50% of its workforce from overseas in near future. Addressing the media persons he said that the company hopes to take its global hiring for IT services to 50 per cent in the next two-three years from 38 per cent this fiscal (2011-12) and 31 percent last fiscal. Premiji said that overseas hiring has become a bit difficult in the face of acute shortage of techies in the US and Europe. As a result Indian techies are being sent on deputation for overseas operations. "Though we are able to hire freshers from campuses, we are finding it tough to recruit laterals as there is an acute shortage of skilled engineers in the US and Britain. Besides, it is expensive and competitive," he said Wipro’s IT Services segment had 136,734 employees as of December 31, 2011, an increase of 5,004 people. The company has 51,959 employees belonging to 70 nationalities at its 70 plus global delivery centres across five continents. “Hiring 50 per cent of our staff outside India is doable and makes sense as they will be closer to clients in the respective geographies for sales support and back office operations”, Premji said.

Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, others file caveat in SC, HC over 3G roaming pacts
Having won the first round of the battle with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) over the 3G roaming pacts, telcos have now filled a caveat in Supreme Court as well as in the High Court fearing that the government might appeal against the TDSAT ruling that tribunal has no power to hear the telcos’ appeal on the issue. With this the operators have made certain that the courts would pass no orders on the Department of Telecom (DoT) plea without hearing their counsel, or get an ex-parte relief. Earlier DoT had challenged the TDSAT’s ruling which gave an interim relief to the telcos who sought the tribunal’s intervention on DoT’s order scarping the 3G roaming pacts between the operators. The Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) on January 19 had ruled that it has jurisdiction to hear the telcos’ appeal against the DoT’ order to scrap the pacts. The tribunal also reserved the order till February 2 when the next hearing comes up. A bench of Judges S.B. Sinha and P.K. Rastogi, however, directed the service operators to handover the roaming agreements copies to DoT.

Idea reports 18% fall in Q3 net profit
Telecom firm Idea Cellular on Monday reported a fall of approximately 18 percent in its consolidated net profit for the third quarter of the current fiscal at Rs.201. The company said that this is primarily because of depreciation and and financing cost with respect to 3G investments, and higher provision for deferred tax. The Aditya Birla Group-promoted firm''s consolidated total income rose by 27.18 percent in the period under review at Rs.5,030.82 crore from Rs.3,955.61 crore for the corresponding quarter of last fiscal. The consolidated results represent all the arms and subsidiaries of the company, including its mobile tower arm -- Indus Towers. On standalone basis, Idea Cellular's net profit in the quarter ending December declined by 26.31 percent at Rs.162.89 crore from Rs.221.06 crore in the like period of 2010-11. The firm's standalone total income rose by 26.4 percent in the period under review at Rs.4,966.45 crore from Rs.3,929.05 crore for the corresponding quarter of last fiscal. The network operation cost in the quarter under review went up by 15.61 percent at Rs.1,353.84 crore from Rs.1,170.95 crore in the like period of 2010-11. "The business outlook remains a paradox, a combination of tailwinds with strong customer traction and headwinds emerging from uncertain regulatory interventions and macro-economic environment," the company said in a statement.

RIM finds new CEO in Thorsten Heins
Research in Motion in a unanimous decision has named Thorsten Heins as President and Chief Executive Officer. Heins was also appointed to RIM’s Board. The Board took the decision after conducting its own due diligence. Both appointments are effective immediately. Mike Lazaridis, former Co-Chair and Co-CEO, has become Vice Chair of RIM’s Board and Chair of the Board’s new Innovation Committee. As Vice Chair, he will work closely with Mr. Heins to offer strategic counsel, provide a smooth transition and continue to promote the BlackBerry brand worldwide.

Snapdeal.com goes mobile, offers deals anytime, anywhere through WAP portal
Snapdeal.com, India’s fastest growing e-commerce firm has launched its mobile site for enabling ease of access for customers on the go. Customers can now access the attractive offers by visiting www.snapdeal.com/m on their mobile devices. The WAP portal offers various payment options too, including Cash on Delivery. The company said that it works on every mobile phone and is the astest way to find deals near one’s location. Apart from this, it offers secure Payment options – Credit and Debit Card “At Snapdeal, we continuously seek ways of enhancing product experience and generating more value for the customers. Goes without saying, it will make Snapdeal available to a much wider audience of mobile subscribers and strengthen our presence.” says Mr. Rishabh Arora, Business Head - Mobile at Snapdeal.com.

Bharti Airtel invites Rs. 1067cr demand notice from IT dept
The income tax department has served a demand notice of Rs. 1067 on Bharti Airtel for non-payment of TDS on overseas operations alleging a breach of sections 201 (consequences of failure to deduct or pay taxes) and section 195 (any person responsible for paying to a non-resident) of the I-T Act. This could prove to a major setback to the company who is struggling with the costs of its African operations and roll out of 3G services. Airtel said it would appeal against the notice saying that it has overseas operations spanning over 19 countries. The IT department however does not buy the argument saying that place of operations or company’s properties does not matter. "We are fully compliant on all applicable Income tax provisions. This demand notice, pertaining to applicability of withholding tax on payments made to international operators, is not justified and we will take appropriate legal recourse", said Bharti Airtel.
The dues against Airtel as mentioned in the notice are related to past for financial years, which are are for 2007-08 (Rs 202 crore), 2008-09 (Rs 329.9 crore), 2009-10 (Rs 313.6 crore) and 2010-11 (Rs 221.7 crore), in lieu of payments made by the company to “non-resident mobile service providers”.

Samsung says it is not interested in buying RIM
Samsung has said that that it has "never" been interested in buying the BlackBerry maker. A Bloomberg report quoting a company’s spokesperson as said it is not considering taking over RIM. James Chung, a Samsung spokesman, said that that the Korean company and RIM, based in Canada, haven't had any contact regarding a purchase deal.Chung also told Bloomberg that Samsung isn't interested in the rumored software licensing deals that RIM has been reportedly exploring as well. On Tuesday, stock in RIM rose $1.30, or 8.04%, to $17.47 per share after the tech news site BGR ran a story, citing unnamed sources, stating that Samsung was the "front runner" to purchase RIM. Of course, Samsung hasn't been the only company that has been rumored to be interested in buying RIM. Among the other potential suitors with speculated interest in RIM are Nokia, Microsoft and Amazon. RIM shares jumped 10% in December on news of possible takeover interest from Microsoft and Amazon. This also isn't the first time that Samsung has come out and denied rumors of its interest in a smartphone property. Last September, Samsung declared its lack of interest in buying the WebOS operating system from Hewlett-Packard. After months of trying to figure out what to do with WebOS, HP eventually decided to retain ownership, open-source the software and then move forward on developing new tablets (but no new Smartphone’s) running the operating system.