• India is the world's second-largest telecommunications
market, with around 1,186.63 million telephone subscriber bases at the end of June 2019. The telecom market can be split into three segments – wireless, wireline and internet services. JIO ANNOUNCEMENT, 1 DECEMBER 2019 • Reliance Jio increases tariffs by up to 40% to recover the Interconnect Usage Charges (IUC). • The IUC is basically the cost paid by one mobile telecom operator to another when its customers make outgoing mobile calls to the other operator's customers. • The company said that it has paid IUC to Airtel, Vodafone Idea and other operators while offering free voice calls to its customers. So far in the last three years, Reliance Jio has claimed to have paid nearly Rs 13,500 crore as NET IUC charges to the other operators. But in return, it has received none from them. • Reliance Jio Infocomm is staring at a potential loss of ₹15,000 crore ($2.1 billion) in FY19 • Reliance Industries would have also reported a ₹3,800 crore loss in the December quarter, instead of the ₹831 crore net profit.” TELECOM SECTOR DEMANDS TAX RATIONALIZATION
• The telecom players sought the government’s support to
lessen the regulatory levies including the reduction of Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) charge to 3%, and reduction of license fee from 3% to 1%, as a part of their pre-budget 2020-21 demand. SC REJECTS BHARTI AIRTEL, VODAFONE IDEA'S PLEA TO REVIEW AGR JUDGEMENT
• The supreme court has rejected the petitions of telecom
operators to review its October 24 judgment upholding the government’s definition of Adjusted Gross Revenue, which includes non-core revenue. The companies now have until January 23 to pay over Rs. 92,000 crore in overhead levies and intrest. Telcos pay 3-5% of their AGR as spectrum usage charges and 8% as license fees. • Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel have reported record losses for the September quarter as they set aside money to pay these dues. • Vodafone Idea’s loss for the September quarter was at Rs50,922 crore—the highest in India’s corporate history. Airtel, too, reported its highest quarterly loss in 14 years at Rs23,045 crore in the quarter ended September. • At the Hindustan Times Leadership last month, Aditya Birla Group chairman Kumar Mangalam Birla had said that the group’s telecom unit, Vodafone Idea, will have to “shut shop" if there was no relief from the government following the apex court ruling on AGR.