KOLKATA: Idea Cellular may splurge awhopping $1.3 billion ( Rs 8,627 crore approx) in adding data spectrum in key markets in the upcoming auction around July while market leader Bharti Airtel may selectively buy 4G airwaves in the coveted 700 Mhz band in a few circles, where it is cheaper than 900 Mhz spectrum, brokerage HSBC said. "Idea may add more data capacity in four circles and we see a potential spend of $1.3 billion in the upcoming spectrum auction by the company," said HSBC analyst Rajiv Sharma in a note, without naming the markets.

NEW DELHI: The board of Idea Mobile Commerce Services has approved its proposed amalgamation with Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Limited, which will seek licence from the RBI in due course.

Telecom operator Idea Cellular in a regulatory filing said that it has taken note of the approval of a draft scheme of amalgamation by the board of directors of its wholly owned subsidiary Idea Mobile Commerce Services Limited (IMCSL).

Idea Cellular has selected Nokia to provide the technology for its 4G LTE rollout in three of its key regional circles -- Kerala, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana, a company statement said here on Monday.

"With Nokia's Single RAN (radio access network) site solution, Idea Cellular will be able to optimize its investments and deliver a superior mobile broadband experience, with faster speeds and better smartphone performance for its subscribers," the statement said.

Shares of Idea Cellular were up nearly 2% at Rs 100 on the Bombay Stock Exchange after the company said by mutual written consent it has terminated the agreement with Videocon Telecommunications Ltd for acquisition of right to use spectrum in the telecom service areas of Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh (West) for an aggregate consideration of approximately Rs 3,310 crore.

The release further said that no joint intimation of this agreement for Right to Use spectrum under Spectrum Trading Guidelines was filed with Department of Telecom.

Shares of Aditya Birla Nuvo were up over 1.5% at Rs 750 after the company said it has formed a joint venture company with Idea Cellular following the approval from the Reserve Bank of India's in-principle approval to set up a Payments Bank.

The new company for the aforesaid purpose will be in the name and style of Aditya Birla Idea Payments Bank Ltd, the company said in a release.

India Ratings and Research has revised its outlook for the telecommunication services sector from stable to stable-to-negative for fiscal year 2017. The agency expects the launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm to intensify competition, which will squeeze the market share, operating margins and credit metrics of incumbents. The agency expects voice revenue to moderate in FY17 on stagnant minutes of usage (MoU) and further competition in call realisations.

Additionally, the agency expects data revenue to remain stagnant on a 30 -40 per cent decline in data realisations/megabyte in FY17 driven by RJio's launch, while support from data consumption growth to data average revenue per user will be gradual. The operators' debt profile will deteriorate in FY17 as the agency expects them to incur high capital expenditure on network expansion and acquisition of additional spectrum through trading, largely to compete with RJio.

Swedish telecom gearmaker Ericsson has been selected by Idea Cellular to deploy 4G/LTE network in select circles and transform the firm's existing 2G and 3G infrastructure.

The LTE deployment will cover Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, the North-East and Himachal Pradesh, which serve over 40 million subscribers.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (Trai) regulation on differential tariffs, which came into force from February 8, has thrown operators like Vodafone India and Idea Cellular into a tizzy. These operators do not have an operator-agnostic application like Bharti Airtel’s Wynk for movie and music downloads but have tie-ups with Hungama Play exclusively for their subscribers, where subscription charges are waived off for the first three months.

State Bank of India (SBI) ICICI Bank, Idea Cellular, Suzlon Energy, Unitech, Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL), Crompton Greaves and United Spirits are among 44 stocks from the BSE500 index hitting their respective 52-week lows till 10:46 AM on the BSE.

The S&P BSE Sensex was down 252 points or 1% at 24,287. The index hit an intra-day low of 24,247 so far.

Idea Cellular has dipped 5% to Rs 108, also its 52-week low on the BSE in otherwise firm market after the company reported a consolidated net profit of Rs 764 crore against an average analysts estimate of Rs 776 crore for the quarter ended December 2015 (Q3FY16).

The company had profit of Rs 767 crore in the same quarter year ago and Rs 809 crore in previous quarter.

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