RIL Top Beneficiary Of New Telecom Norms

The Telecom Commission has decided to permit voice services to 4G operators by paying Rs 1,658 crore to the government. The move is expected to benefit companies like Tikona Digital, Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJI) and Augere. Reliance Industries may re-enter the telecom sector through its telecom venture RJI.

In 2010, the government had given a broadband wireless access (BWA) license to six players, which included companies like RJI, Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Qualcomm, Tikona Digital and Augere. Airtel and Aircel are already present in the voice services. Tikona is present only in the five circles in India which leaves RJI as the top beneficiary as it has BWA licenses across the country.

The government, however, has deferred the decision to bring telecom tower companies under licenses and hence companies like GTL Infrastructure and Bharti Infratel will not gain anything from this. The telecom commission has also deferred a decision to offer licenses to club services like telecom and television and charge them together through a single bill. This move, if implemented, would help companies like Tata Sky, Dish TV, Videocon, and Airtel among the major players.

The commission has also said that it will hold a third round of 2G spectrum auction in compliance with the court orders.

If executed by the BWA license-holding companies, the telecom space might see a few more players offering voice services. It would thus increase competition in the telecom sector. On this news, the stocks in the telecom sector have shown a fall today with Bharti Airtel falling by more than 2%, while shares of Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication fell by more than 1.5% each. The stocks of tower operators Bharti Infratel, and GTL have also fallen by nearly 1%.