Idea Cellular, India's third largest telecom operator by subscribers, today said it would move its 1.5 million prepaid customers who are on a per-minute plan to a per-second billing plan over the next 30 days.

“We will now be offering PSB (per second billing) plan, by default, to our entire base of nearly 157 million existing and new prepaid users,” said Sashi Shankar, chief marketing officer of Idea Cellular.

MUMBAI: The story goes that some months ago an investor expressed impatience with Idea Cellular's stance that the Indian consumer wasn't ready for 4G or next-generation, high-speed network technology.

The investor suggested that this belief was misplaced, given that the competition was very busy on this front.

Idea Cellular, the flagship mobile company of the Aditya Birla group, reported a 28 per cent year-on-year (y-o-y) increase in net profit in the June quarter to Rs 930.8 crore. This was ahead of the Street's estimates of Rs 911 crore and driven by healthy growth in data and voice volumes. Profits were driven by robust growth in mobile data volumes. Sequentially, however, profits were down 1.16 per cent. The company said it has carefully studied the market for launch of 4G services and is expecting to roll out the upgraded services from January 2016 in 10 circles where it has bought licences.

Cash-rich Bharti Infratel is in advanced talks with British telecom major Vodafone and the Aditya Birla Group's Idea Cellular to buy out their telecom towers at a valuation of up to $1.6 billion (Rs 10,080 crore).

Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, India's top three cellular service providers, jointly own stakes in unlisted telecom tower company Indus Towers, apart from having their own tower arms. Banking sources said Vodafone might sell 11,000-12,000 towers and Idea Cellular 9,000 to Bharti Infratel.

Idea Cellular has rallied nearly 3%, or Rs 5, to Rs 179 levels on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) around 12 noon on reports that the company has hiked mobile data rates by up to 100% for pre-paid customers in the NCR region.

According to a Times of India (TOI) report, the country's third largest telecom operator has doubled the price for some 2G plans, while 3G will be costlier by about 33%.

The Supreme Court on Thursday dismissed a batch of petitions filed by various telecom companies, including Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, seeking extension of their spectrum licences.

"We see no merit. The petitions are dismissed," a bench headed by J Chelameswar said.

Aditya Birla group telecom major Idea Cellular was planning a capex of around Rs 5,500 crore in the current fiscal to strengthen its infrastructure.

Mumbai: Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (R-Jio) has outspent most telecom operators in India and may soon surpass Bharti Airtel Ltd even before the telecom unit of Reliance Industries Ltd (RIL) has started commercial operations, illustrating the extent billionaire Mukesh Ambani is willing to go to tap demand for wireless data in the world’s second biggest smartphone market.

R-Jio, which will start operations later this year, has spent $14 billion so far, more than India’s third largest mobile phone operator Idea Cellular Ltd.

Mobile phone users will pay less for usage while roaming from tomorrow as leading operators, including Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications, slashed their roaming rates by up to 75 per cent weeks after regulator Trai cut ceiling tariffs.

While in roaming, call rates will be cheaper by up to 40 per cent and SMS by up to 75 per cent.

Idea Cellular, India's third largest mobile operator, on Tuesday reported a 66 per cent year-on-year jump in its standalone net profit at Rs 1,077.7 crore for the fourth quarter, which was better than Street estimates of Rs 850 crore.

Revenues, too, beat Street estimates growing by 22 per cent in the fourth quarter over the corresponding quarter last year to Rs 8,541.3 crore. Various brokerages were expecting 19-20 per cent growth in revenues during the quarter.

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