Mobile and money

Indian government greed ahead of high-priced spectrum auctions

Author: Michael Newlands
Published: 2015-01-30

A reasonable person might infer the main function of a government agency called the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) would be to expedite the development and deployment of telecommunications services. But not in India it seems. Rather than helping mobile telecoms operators roll out modern networks for the benefit of the Indian consumer, the government bureaucrats seem to be under the …

Telecom M&A in India: déjà vu policy stalemate

Author: Ricardo Tavares
Published: 2015-01-11

The long-overdue and much-needed consolidation of the Indian mobile telecommunications market is still on hold thanks to continuing government prevarication and inaction. I was hopeful the incoming new government would introduce promised reforms in the form of pro-telecom and pro-consumer initiatives. If they had done it last year, we would have seen a rush of M&A activity commencing in the …