BHARTIARTL

By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil

NEW DELHI, Dec 5 (Reuters) - India's government is reviewing a telecom industry proposal to force smartphone firms to enable satellite location tracking that is always activated for better surveillance, a move opposed by Apple, Google and Samsung due to privacy concerns, according to documents, emails and five sources.

A fierce privacy debate erupted in India this week after Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government was forced to rescind an order requiring smartphone makers to preload a state-run cyber safety app on all devices after activists and politicians raised concerns about potential snooping.

For years, the Modi administration has been concerned its agencies do not get precise locations when legal requests are made to telecom firms during investigations. Under the current system, the firms are limited to using cellular tower data that can only provide an estimated area location, which can be off by several meters.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), which represents Reliance's RELI.NS Jio and Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, has proposed that precise user locations should only be provided if the government orders smartphone makers to activate A-GPS technology - which uses satellite signals and cellular data - according to a June internal federal IT ministry email.

That would require location services to always be activated in smartphones with no option for users to disable them. Apple AAPL.O, Samsung 005930.KS and Alphabet's GOOGL.O Google have told New Delhi that should not be mandated, said three of the sources who have direct knowledge of the deliberations.

A measure to track device-level location has no precedent anywhere else in the world, lobbying group India Cellular & Electronics Association (ICEA), which represents both Apple and Google, wrote in a confidential July letter to the government, which was viewed by Reuters.

"The A-GPS network service ... (is) not deployed or supported for location surveillance," said the letter, which added that the measure "would be a regulatory overreach."

'DEDICATED SURVEILLANCE DEVICE'

India's home ministry had scheduled a meeting of top smartphone industry executives to discuss the matter on Friday but it was postponed, a source with direct knowledge of the matter said. On Thursday, Reuters sent questions related to this topic to the ministry.

India's IT and home ministries, which are both analysing the telecom industry's proposal, did not respond to Reuters queries.

Apple, Samsung, Google, Reliance and Airtel did not respond to requests for comment. Lobby groups ICEA and COAI also did not respond.

At this point, no policy decision has been made by the IT or home ministries.

Taking advantage of A-GPS technology - which is typically only turned on when certain apps are running or when emergency calls are being made - could provide authorities with location data precise enough that a user can be tracked to within about a meter, according to technology experts.

"This proposal would see phones operate as a dedicated surveillance device," said Junade Ali, a digital forensics expert associated with Britain's Institution of Engineering and Technology.

Cooper Quintin, a security researcher at the U.S.-based Electronic Frontier Foundation, said he had not heard of any such proposal elsewhere, calling it "pretty horrifying."

Governments worldwide routinely seek new ways to better track cellphone users' movements or data. Russia has mandated the installation of a state-backed communications app on all mobile phones in the country.

TELCOS VS SMARTPHONE FIRMS

India is the world's second-biggest mobile market with 735 million smartphones as of mid-2025, where Google's Android powers more than 95% of the devices, with the rest using Apple's iOS, Counterpoint Research says.

Apple and Google's lobby group, the ICEA, argued in their July letter that there are significant "legal, privacy, and national security concerns" with the proposal from the telecom group.

It warned their user base would include people from the military, judges, corporate executives and journalists, adding that proposed location tracking risked their security given that they hold sensitive information.

Even the old way of location tracking is becoming problematic, the telecom group said, as smartphone makers show a pop-up message to users, alerting them that their "carrier is trying to access your location."

"A target can easily ascertain that he is being tracked by security agencies," said the telecom group, urging the government to order phone makers to disable the pop-up features.

Privacy concerns should take priority and India should also not consider disabling the pop-ups, Apple and Google's group argued in its July letter to the government.

This will "ensure transparency and user control over their location."

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil; Editing by Thomas Derpinghaus)

((Email: [email protected]; X: @adityakalra;))

Nov 28 (Reuters) - India's Adani Group plans to invest up to $5 billion in Alphabet-owned Google's GOOGL.O India AI data centre project, an executive said on Friday, as it seeks to cash in on booming demand for data capacity in the world's most populous nation.

In October, Google said it would invest $15 billion over five years to set up an artificial intelligence data centre in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, its biggest investment in India.

AI requires enormous computing power, pushing demand for specialised data centres that enable thousands of chips to be linked in clusters.

Adani Group CFO Jugeshinder Singh said the Google project could mean an investment of up to $5 billion for Adani Connex - a joint venture between Adani Enterprises ADEL.NS and private data centre operator EdgeConneX.

"It's not just Google, there are a lot of parties that would like to work with us, especially when the data centre capacity goes to gigawatt and higher," Singh told reporters on Friday.

Google has committed to spending about $85 billion this year to expand data centre capacity as tech companies invest heavily in infrastructure to meet the booming demand for AI services.

Indian billionaires Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani have also unveiled investments in building data centre capacity.

The data centre campus in the port city of Visakhapatnam will have an initial power capacity of 1 gigawatt.

($1 = 89.3660 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Harshita Meenaktshi and Dhwani Pandya; Editing by Kevin Liffey)

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By Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra

MUMBAI, Nov 21 (Reuters) - India's Bharti Telecom, the holding company of Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, is looking to raise $1 billion through a bond sale, its second in two months, two sources aware of the matter said on Friday.

The company is set to issue 90 billion rupees ($1.01 billion) worth of bonds maturing in two years and in three years and is likely to pay a coupon of 7.25% and 7.35%, respectively, on these notes, close to secondary market levels for October's issue, according to the sources.

The funds are being raised largely for refinancing upcoming debt maturities, the sources said, requesting anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to the media.

The company did not immediately respond to a Reuters email seeking comment.

The firm has bonds worth 72.50 billion rupees ($817.89 million) maturing in December, after 25 billion rupees of bonds matured on Friday. It also has securities worth 266.50 billion rupees that will mature between 2026 and 2034.

In October, Bharti Telecom raised 105 billion rupees through the sale of bonds maturing in two years and in three years and two months at an annual coupon of 7.35% and 7.45%, respectively.

The sources said, mutual funds are likely to be big buyers of these bonds, as in the previous issue, while some foreign banks have also shown interest.

At the indicative pricing, this would be the cheapest bond fundraising for Bharti Telecom in four years.

An upgrade of its bonds earlier this year to the highest rating of AAA by CRISIL Ratings has helped lower its borrowing cost.

($1 = 88.6425 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra; Editing by Eileen Soreng)

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Nov 6 (Reuters) -

• SINGTEL OFFERS $1.2 BILLION STAKE IN BHARTI AIRTEL, TERMS SHOW - BLOOMBERG NEWS

• SINGTEL UNIT PASTEL LTD. OFFERED TO SELL 51 MILLION SHARES, OR A STAKE OF 0.8% IN BHARTI, AT A FLOOR PRICE OF 2,030 RUPEES EACH - BLOOMBERG NEWS

Source text: https://tinyurl.com/44b2xjjm

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Oct 28 (Reuters) - OpenAI will offer its ChatGPT Go subscription free to users in India for one year starting November 4, the Microsoft- MSFT.O backed startup said on Tuesday, as it seeks to boost adoption in its second-largest market.

The plan, which was first launched in India in August, is OpenAI's most affordable offering and is currently priced at 399 rupees ($4.54) per month.

The move comes amid sweeping new rules proposed by the Indian government earlier this month to regulate artificial intelligence, proposing that AI and social media firms clearly label AI-generated content to tackle the spread of deepfake and misinformation.

India is OpenAI's second-largest market by user base after the United States and may soon become its biggest, CEO Sam Altman said earlier this year.

Rival Perplexity is offering a year of free access to its premium plan to Indian users through a tie-up with mobile carrier Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, while Google GOOGL.O has made its Gemini AI Pro free for students for the same period.

($1 = 87.8950 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonia Cheema)

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The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own. Refiles to add conversion of Indian rupee into US dollar in the second paragraph.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Oct 16 (Reuters Breakingviews) - All that glitters isn't gold when it comes to India's richest man. When Mukesh Ambani lists his telecom business in Mumbai next year, it will be a blockbuster event for the country's capital markets but it also will crystallise underwhelming returns for the world's biggest tech companies, private equity firms and sovereign wealth funds who backed his consumer unit in 2020. It heralds a reset of how foreigners view tycoons and competition in the country.

Five years ago when the Covid pandemic was shaking the world, Ambani's conglomerate Reliance Industries RELI.NS sold 1.5 trillion rupees ($16.99 billion) of stock in Jio Platforms to investors led by Meta Platforms META.O, KKR KKR.N and Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund; the flood of funds into India at the time was so large it caused a spike in foreign direct investment.

At 5.16 trillion rupees including debt, or $59 billion at current exchange rates, the landmark fundraising valued Jio's enterprise at 23 times its EBITDA, a multiple twice its nearest rival Sunil Bharti Mittal's Bharti Airtel and one reminiscent of a fast-growing technology startup.

Part of the hype was justified. The telecom unit Ambani founded in 2016 rose quickly by launching a bruising price war and was given a wide berth by India's competition authorities. Jio became the country's top provider of mobile services and helped to push down data tariffs to the lowest in the world. It even accelerated the bankruptcy of Reliance Communications RLCM.NS, led by Ambani's brother Anil. By the time Ambani welcomed outside investors, India's telecoms market had shrunk to a quasi-duopoly with a joint venture between Britain's Vodafone VOD.L and Kumar Mangalam Birla as a weak third player.

Fast forward and Jio had 498 million voice and data customers as of June 30 . Yet while this consumer business within Ambani's oil-to-retail conglomerate has continued to grow, it also has failed to live up to expectations in some striking ways.

Five years on from its fundraising, Jio's enterprise, including net debt, is valued at 10.6 trillion rupees, based on an average estimate of six brokers. That is nearly twice the value investors assigned it in 2020 or equivalent to an annualised return of nearly about 15%, one percentage point more than the annualised gross return of the MSCI India Index over a five year period. Private equity investors typically target returns of 20% and much higher in India.

Measured a different way, Jio's potential return could be even lower. The enterprise is worth just 8.7 trillion rupees if it is valued on 10 times its EBITDA, the same multiple Bharti Airtel commands. At that valuation, Jio would hand its backers including KKR, Silver Lake and TPG, an annualised return of just over 10%.

One problem is that Jio does not look like a "next generation technology platform". In 2020, Jio talked up a dazzling list of investments across its "digital ecosystem" including in "smart devices, cloud and edge computing, big data analytics, artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, augmented and mixed reality and blockchain". Although Jio doesn't have legacy 3G infrastructure to manage like its rivals, it still makes 87% of its revenue and 94% of its EBITDA from its basic communications unit Reliance Jio Infocomm RELJ.NS rather than from digital services, per CLSA analysts.

What's more, Jio's customers spend less than Airtel's. Average revenue per user has grown 60% over the last five years to 209 rupees ($2.37) but that lags the 250 rupees Airtel's India users churn out. Airtel's EBITDA margin for India and South Asia is also higher than Jio's by a staggering 770 basis points and its current offerings in cloud and artificial intelligence services closely mirror its challenger's.

Nor does Jio appear to have delivered on its strategic ambitions. Meta's Facebook pumped $6 billion in for a 10% stake but Ambani - whose Reliance conglomerate is also the owner of India's biggest retailer - did not lure millions of small grocers to transact on the payments system on WhatsApp, the U.S. company's social messaging platform - as was widely expected.

The rise of quick-commerce operations by Prosus-backed Swiggy SWIG.NS and Zomato-owner Eternal ETEA.NS killed Reliance Retail's 2022 attempt to enable grocery shopping through the messaging app. Similarly, Alphabet's Google GOOGL.O invested $4.5 billion in Jio but demand for the low-cost smartphone the duo launched in 2021 was weak; the telecom operator's wide reach didn't guarantee it a market.

Ambani's backers underestimated the strength of competition in India. They would have been better off if they had backed Bharti Airtel. Its shares have returned roughly 40% annually, including dividends, since 2020, significantly more than Jio looks set to deliver. Google enjoyed some of those spoils by hedging its bets: In 2022 it invested up to $1 billion in Jio's rival.

If Jio's returns are underwhelming, crystallizing them will be tough too. Ambani will need to launch one of India's largest initial public offerings. If 5% of the company's outstanding shares swap hands at a $120 billion valuation, Jio's bankers would need to find new owners for $6 billion of stock. That would be far too much for India's capital markets to swallow: Hyundai Motor India's HYUN.NS 279 billion rupee offering in 2024 remains the country's largest IPO, followed by Life Insurance Corporation's LIFI.NS 210 billion rupee deal in 2022.

Ambani could offer half the amount of stock or roughly $3 billion, using new rules from the Securities and Exchange Board of India but that would leave financial investors with billions of dollars of investments in Jio waiting for an exit; strategic investors, who may be willing to sit on their positions, bought about half of the $17 billion Jio initially raised.

Some of Jio's backers may still conclude that the investment was worth it. The dominance of family-led businesses in India often means that striking partnerships is increasingly seen as a matter of survival rather than choice for global companies and a way to protect themselves in the market. Global asset manager BlackRock BLK.N and China-founded online fast-fashion Shein are among others who are partnering with Ambani.

Yet an underwhelming payoff from Jio will strengthen the case for more scrutiny when foreign investors choose their local alliances in the future.

Follow Shritama Bose on LinkedIn and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

Reliance Industries will list its telecommunications unit by mid-2026, Chair Mukesh Ambani said at the conglomerate's annual shareholder meeting on August 29. "We are aiming to list Jio by the first-half of 2026, subject to all necessary approvals," he said.

Jio Platforms is targeting India's largest-ever initial public offering, IFR reported on September 5, citing unnamed bankers.

(Editing by Una Galani; Production by Aditya Srivastav)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/[email protected]))

Oct 15 (Reuters) - India's second-largest telecom operator Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS has partnered with IBM IBM.N to offer the American tech firm's services through its recently launched cloud platform, the companies said on Wednesday as demand for computing capacity grows.

Indian firms have been working to expand the availability of cloud platforms as the growing prominence of artificial intelligence technology and some localized data storage requirements have boosted demand for cloud services in the country.

Through this partnership, Airtel Cloud customers will be able to deploy IBM's offerings, such as AI-ready servers for applications, in regulated industries like banking, healthcare, government and others.

This comes just a day after Google said it would invest $15 billion over five years to set up an AI data centre in India's southern state of Andhra Pradesh. Airtel is also partnering with Google to jointly establish the data center in the port city of Visakhapatnam.

Bharti Airtel's digital unit Xtelify unveiled its Airtel Cloud service in August.

IBM and Airtel will also establish two new Multizone Regions, or MZRs, in Mumbai and Chennai soon, said Gopal Vittal, vice chairman and managing director of Bharti Airtel.

MZRs account for cloud infrastructure that is spread across physical locations in different zones to ensure data and operations remain safe and uninterrupted in case of faults in any distinct region.

This will help Indian businesses address data residency requirements and keep mission-critical workloads and applications up and running at all times, the companies said.

(Reporting by Arsheeya Bajwa in Bengaluru; Editing by Alan Barona)

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Repeats October 10 story with no changes to text

By Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra

MUMBAI, Oct 10 (Reuters) - India's Bharti Telecom, the holding company of Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, will launch the largest bond sale of the current fiscal year next week, aiming to raise funds at significantly lower rates than last year, according to three merchant bankers.

The company is looking to raise 150 billion rupees ($1.7 billion) through the sale of bonds maturing in two years and in three years and two months.

It will pay an annual coupon of 7.35% and 7.45% on these issues, respectively, the bankers added.

Mutual funds are likely to be big buyers of the bonds, said one of the bankers, adding that there was interest from some foreign banks and private banks as well.

The bankers requested anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to media. The company did not reply to a Reuters email sent on Thursday seeking a response.

This would be the cheapest bond fundraising for the company in four years.

A 100 basis-point cut in the Reserve Bank of India's policy rate in 2025, and an upgrade of the company's existing bonds to the highest-grade rating of AAA by CRISIL Ratings has helped bring down costs for the company.

If successful, it would be the biggest bond issue of this year. In November 2024, it had raised 111.50 billion rupees through the sale of bonds.

"While majority of the funding will go for refinancing, the company will use a sufficient chunk for capex," the banker said.

The firm has debt securities worth 97.50 billion rupees that are due to mature in November-December. It also has bonds worth 161.50 billion rupees that will mature between 2027-2034.

($1 = 88.8100 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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By Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra

MUMBAI, Oct 10 (Reuters) - India's Bharti Telecom, the holding company of Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, will launch the largest bond sale of the current fiscal year next week, aiming to raise funds at significantly lower rates than last year, according to three merchant bankers.

The company is looking to raise 150 billion rupees ($1.7 billion) through the sale of bonds maturing in two years and in three years and two months.

It will pay an annual coupon of 7.35% and 7.45% on these issues, respectively, the bankers added.

Mutual funds are likely to be big buyers of the bonds, said one of the bankers, adding that there was interest from some foreign banks and private banks as well.

The bankers requested anonymity as they are not authorised to speak to media. The company did not reply to a Reuters email sent on Thursday seeking a response.

This would be the cheapest bond fundraising for the company in four years.

A 100 basis-point cut in the Reserve Bank of India's policy rate in 2025, and an upgrade of the company's existing bonds to the highest-grade rating of AAA by CRISIL Ratings has helped bring down costs for the company.

If successful, it would be the biggest bond issue of this year. In November 2024, it had raised 111.50 billion rupees through the sale of bonds.

"While majority of the funding will go for refinancing, the company will use a sufficient chunk for capex," the banker said.

The firm has debt securities worth 97.50 billion rupees that are due to mature in November-December. It also has bonds worth 161.50 billion rupees that will mature between 2027-2034.

($1 = 88.8100 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Dharamraj Dhutia and Khushi Malhotra; Editing by Anil D'Silva)

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JOHANNESBURG, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Optasia, a fintech company partly owned by Ethos Capital, said on Wednesday it planned to list on South Africa's Johannesburg Stock Exchange and raise up to 6.3 billion rand ($375 million) by selling a combination of new and existing shares.

The company, which operates AI-powered financial services in 38 countries, will raise about 1.3 billion rand in an initial public offering and also hold a private placement of at least 5 billion rand for existing shareholders, it said in a statement.

"An IPO will allow us to accelerate our growth, raise our visibility as a leading global fintech and continue innovating to expand financial opportunity where it is needed most," CEO Salvador Anglada said.

Optasia, headquartered in Dubai, provides micro-financing and mobile phone airtime credit to people who often don't have traditional bank accounts, primarily in emerging markets. The company said it had around 121 million monthly active users and processed over 32 million loan transactions daily.

It was founded in 2012 and operates mostly in Africa, the Middle East and Asia. Its distribution partners include South African mobile operators MTN MTNJ.J, Vodacom VODJ.J and Airtel AAF.L

($1 = 17.2488 rand)

(Reporting by Nqobile Dludla
Editing by Mark Potter)

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Oct 6 (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS:

• WINS MULTI-YEAR CONTRACT FOR INDIAN RAILWAY SECURITY

• TO BUILD MULTI-LAYER PROTECTION FOR RAILWAY DATABASE

Source text: ID:nNSE9njmRf

Further company coverage: BRTI.NS

(([email protected];))

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Shritama Bose

MUMBAI, Oct 3 (Reuters Breakingviews) - India's artificial intelligence angst may be premature. OpenAI and Perplexity's aggressive entry into the country has sparked fears that it's falling behind the U.S. But the emergence of China's DeepSeek shows early movers can be disrupted.

In August, Sam Altman's OpenAI launched its cheapest ChatGPT subscription plan to target India's billion-odd internet users, following rival Perplexity, which is offering its Pro service to 360 million Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS telecom customers at no cost. The duo's entry into the country follows an outburst from a federal minister in April, admonishing local startups to emulate China, rather than make "fancy ice cream and cookies".

Complacency fears are understandable. India has yet to develop an answer to Western and Chinese large language models despite being home to the second-largest pool of AI professionals in the world behind the U.S., as well as home to top outsourcers like Tata Consultancy Services TCS.NS and research hubs of multinational businesses from JPMorgan JPM.N to SAP. Falling behind in the AI race might jeopardise the country's status as a global IT services hub. Fraying ties between Washington and New Delhi will also make dependence on American tech politically unpalatable.

At the same time, though, it's still early days in India's $7.8 billion AI industry. Unlike in social media and payments, chatbots and other tools rely less on network effects, leaving room for local challengers to emerge. New Delhi's struggle lies in strategically tackling the biggest constraints holding its companies back.

The first is funding: Indian investments in AI between 2013 and 2024 were just 9% of those in China and a fraction of U.S. investments over the period, per statistics from Bernstein. Officials are stepping up their efforts, with a 103 billion rupees ($1.2 billion) startup fund to support both large language models and applications targeting the 500 million Indians that are not yet online. That should encourage the development of multilingual and mobile use cases, such as in crop management and school-level learning. More initiatives should follow.

New Delhi is also supporting the sector with subsidised computing power available at less than 100 rupees ($1.14) an hour, half the global average, as part of its broader IndiaAI Mission initiative. It can go further by encouraging Indian talent to stay in the country, via research grants and schemes at a time when t he U.S. is tightening access to skilled worker visas.

Over time, these steps should help encourage greater risk-taking by not just deep-pocketed firms like Reliance Industries RELI.NS, which in August announced a joint venture with Meta Platforms META.O to offer AI services to enterprises, but also the country's startups. Promising companies like Lightspeed-backed Sarvam, which specialises in Indic-language and speech models, and e-learning assistant Entri, are making steady progress. Moreover, government-backed digital infrastructure, such as mobile payments, should offer plenty of opportunities for new upstarts.

India's position is unenviable, but at least there is still time.

Follow Shritama Bose on Linkedin and X.

CONTEXT NEWS

OpenAI on August 19 launched ChatGPT Go, a new India-only subscription plan priced at 399 rupees ($4.53) per month, its most affordable offering yet.

Indian telecommunications company Bharti Airtel said on July 17 it was partnering with U.S. artificial intelligence firm Perplexity to offer a 12-month complimentary subscription to the latter's Pro service to its 360 million customers.

(Editing by Robyn Mak; Production by Ujjaini Dutta)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on BOSE/[email protected]))

** Shares of Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS rise ~2% to 1,939.70 rupees

** Stock among top two percent gainers on Nifty 50 .NSEI, which is trading flat

** Operator discontinues entry-level data plan of 249 rupees with 1GB data per day for 24 days

** Rival Reliance Jio also dropped its entry-level plan on Tuesday

** Jefferies says this move will drive higher data usage, boost average revenue per user by 3% for entry-level data subscribers

** Jefferies has BRTI as its preferred pick in the sector, with PT at 2,500 rupees

** On avg, analysts rate the stock "Buy"; median PT is 2,107.50 rupees - data compiled by LSEG

** YTD, BRTI up 22%

(Reporting by Komal Salecha)

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Updates throughout with details on results

Aug 13 (Reuters) - Singapore Telecommunications STEL.SI posted a 14% increase in first-quarter underlying profit on Wednesday, driven by strong results from its Australian unit Optus and contributions from regional associates, including India's Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS.

Singtel's improved performance highlighted price hikes for telecom services in key markets and resilient growth from its regional associates, led by Bharti Airtel, whose post-tax contribution from India and South Asia more than doubled during the quarter.

Post-tax contribution from regional associates, including Bharti Airtel, Indonesia's Telkomsel, and Thailand's AIS, grew 24.5% to S$468 million.

As a result, Singtel's first-quarter underlying net profit rose to S$686 million ($534.77 million) from S$603 million a year earlier, largely in line with the consensus estimate of S$686.9 million, according to Visible Alpha.

"We achieved a strong set of first-quarter results despite ongoing macroeconomic uncertainties and currency fluctuations," Singtel CEO Yuen Kuan Moon said.

On a statutory basis, Singtel reported a net profit of S$2.88 billion, sharply higher from S$690 million seen last year, bolstered by one-off gains from the sale of a partial stake in Airtel and the Intouch-Gulf Energy merger.

Yuen forecast the telecom operator's data centre business to be a "bright spot" in the ongoing financial year as its data centres in Thailand and Singapore near completion.

($1 = 1.2828 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Nikita Maria Jino in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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Aug 13 (Reuters) - Singapore Telecommunications STEL.SI reported a 14% rise in first-quarter underlying profit on Wednesday, driven by strong performance from Australian unit Optus and contributions from regional associates including India's Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS.

Southeast Asia's largest telecom operator reported an underlying net profit of S$686 million ($534.77 million) for the three-month period ended June 30, up from S$603 million a year earlier.

That was largely in line with the consensus estimate of S$686.9 million, according to Visible Alpha.

($1 = 1.2828 Singapore dollars)

(Reporting by Sameer Manekar and Nikita Maria Jino in Bengaluru; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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** Shares of Bharti Airtel Ltd BRTI.NS drop 2.3% to 1,879 rupees

** Stock biggest loser on blue-chip Nifty 50 .NSEI index

** Over 73 million BRTI shares trade hands in 126 block deals, all at a discount to previous closing price of 1922.60 rupees - National Stock Exchange of India data

** News channel CNBC-TV18 on Thursday reported that promoter Indian Continent Investment plans to sell 0.8% stake it owns in co for $1 billion

** Over 78.5 million shares traded in stocks's second-most active session this year, 16.2x the 30-day average volume

** Analysts rate BRTI and Jio owner Reliance Industries RELI.NS "buy" on avg, while smaller rival Vodafone Idea VODA.NS rated "hold" - data compiled by LSEG

** BRTI stock up ~18% YTD, RELI up 14.3%, VODA down ~16%

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru)

(([email protected]; Mobile: +91 9591011727;))

Aug 7 (Reuters) -

• SUNIL MITTAL-LED PROMOTER ENTITY EYES PART STAKE SALE IN BHARTI AIRTEL, LAUNCHES $1 BILLION BLOCK DEAL - MONEYCONTROL

• INDIAN CONTINENT INVESTMENT LIMITED HAS LAUNCHED A BLOCK DEAL TO SELL STAKE IN BHARTI AIRTEL AT A FLOOR PRICE OF RUPEES 1,862 PER SHARE- MONEYCONTROL

Source text: https://tinyurl.com/44d4zteu

Further company coverage: BRTI.NS

(([email protected];))

** Shares of Bharti AirtelBRTI.NS up 0.75% at 1928.9 rupees

** Analysts expect a near 60% y/y rise in Q1 consol net profit aided by customer addition, price hikes

** Ambit Capital expects Airtel to add 2.5 million subscribers in the quarter, ARPU to grow 1% q/q

** Analysts expect the telecom co to take further tariff hikes in December this year

** Motilal Oswal picks BRTI as a top pick for the sector, who, along with Jio, will continue to gain subscribers on Vodafone Idea's VODA.NS expense

** BRTI up 21% so far in 2025 vs 4% rise in Nifty 50 index.NSEI

(Reporting by Nishit Navin in Bengaluru)

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Aug 4 (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, India's no. 2 telco, said on Monday its digital arm Xtelify launched a cloud platform which can optimise up to 40% in cloud spends for Indian businesses.

The company said it also entered a partnership with Singtel STEL.SI, Airtel Africa and Globe Telecom GLO.PS for a newly launched AI platform.

(Reporting by Kashish Tandon in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

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KAMPALA, July 23 (Reuters) - MTN Uganda MTNU.UG, the East African country's largest telecom firm, plans to split off its fintech unit into a separate entity and aims to list it on the local bourse in three to five years, the company said late on Tuesday.

The company, which has a mobile subscriber base of about 21 million, is a unit of South Africa's MTN Group MTNJ.J and competes mainly with the local unit of India's Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS.

MTN Uganda received shareholder nod at an extra-ordinary general meeting held on Tuesday for the proposed separation of its mobile money and fintech business, the company said in a statement.

Mobile money is a cell phone-enabled service that allows subscribers to transfer money and make payments for products and services like utility bills, energy purchases, food orders and ride hails. The platform has grown rapidly in Africa, where it is now widely used.

Under the reorganisation, MTN Uganda's mobile money fintech business will be transformed into a separate entity majority owned by MTN Group Fintech Holdings B.V, the fintech arm of MTN Group.

The goal is to "ultimately see the independent fintech business list separately on the Uganda Securities Exchange (USE), alongside MTN Uganda, within a three- to five-year period," MTN Uganda Chief Executive Sylvia Mulinge said in the statement.

(Reporting by Elias Biryabarema; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)

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July 17 (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel Ltd BRTI.NS:

• AIRTEL PARTNERS WITH PERPLEXITY

• PARTNERS WITH PERPLEXITY TO OFFER PERPLEXITY PRO

Source text: ID:nnAZN46ZCE9

Further company coverage: BRTI.NS

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July 9 (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel Ltd BRTI.NS:

• INCORPORATES SUBSIDIARY AIRTEL MONEY LIMITED

Source text: ID:nBSE2FlWh6

Further company coverage: BRTI.NS

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Corrects typographical error in headline

July 7 (Reuters) - Sunil Mittal, the billionaire-founder of Indian telecom operator Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, and private equity firm Warburg Pincus have submitted a bid to acquire a 49% stake in Haier India at a steep discounted valuation of $720 million, Business Standard newspaper reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter.

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Mrigank Dhaniwala)

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** Shares of telecom services provider Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS rise 2.1% to 2,006 rupees

** CLSA says investor appetite for BRTI remains high due to continuing strong growth, after conducting a roadshow in UK and EU

** Investors also attracted due to its expanding market share and widening ARPU (average revenue per user) premium to rival Reliance Jio, according to CLSA

** Brokerage, however, says BRTI's unit Bharti Hexacomm BHAX.NS may see some selling due to its costly valuations; BHAX down 3.1% for the day

** BRTI shares are up 24% in 2025 so far, compared to the 8% rise in benchmark Nifty 50 .NSEI

(Reporting by Bharath Rajeswaran in Bengaluru)

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** Shares of Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS rise as much as 3.1% to record high of 1,934.50 rupees; last up 2.8%

** BRTI among top pct gainers on the Nifty 50 index .NSEI, which is up 1.1%

** Reuters could not immediately ascertain the reason behind the day's move on the stock

** Stock set to gain for third straight session

** BRTI up ~22% YTD

(Reporting by Vijay Malkar)

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NEW DELHI, June 4 (Reuters) - A group representing Indian telecom giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel has said their businesses will suffer if India prices satellite spectrum at "unjustifiably low" rates that benefit satellite internet services such as Elon Musk's Starlink.

India's telecom regulator in May proposed satellite service providers pay 4% of their annual revenue to the government for offering services. Starlink had lobbied India not to auction spectrum but just assign licences in line with a global trend, saying it is a natural resource that should be shared by companies.

The Cellular Operators Association of India in a May 29 letter to the telecoms ministry sought a review of those pricing proposals, saying traditional players pay higher upfront auction charges for telecoms spectrum which make their payments to the government for spectrum roughly 21% higher, when compared to what satellite players would pay.

"Price per MHz should be equivalent or at least comparable for both, especially when used to reach the same consumers for identical services," said the letter, seen by Reuters.

"Satellite services can offer competitive and affordable alternatives to terrestrial broadband," it added.

Reliance, led by Asia's richest man Ambani, and Airtel didn't respond to Reuters' request for comment. Starlink was not immediately available for comment.

A senior Indian government source told Reuters on Wednesday the telecoms ministry is still reviewing the pricing recommendations made by the regulator, adding such industry concerns have been raised in the past.

Telecom players like Reliance Jio RELJ.NS are concerned they will be offering similar wireless broadband services as satellite providers but paying much more, said an industry source with direct knowledge of the situation.

Reliance and others have spent nearly $20 billion in recent years to get 5G spectrum via auctions to offer telecom, data and broadband services.

Ambani's company unsuccessfully lobbied New Delhi for months to auction satellite spectrum, and not allot it administratively as Musk's Starlink wanted.

Though Reliance and Airtel have signed distribution deals in March for Starlink equipment, they will continue to compete with Musk's offerings to customers once launched.

The process of Starlink getting a license is "nearly complete", telecoms minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told The Print news website on Tuesday.

(Reporting by Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)

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Adds details from court hearing, background

May 19 (Reuters) - India's Vodafone Idea VODA.NS had its petition to waive more than $5 billion in debt it owes to the government rejected by the country's top court on Monday, dealing a major setback to the telecoms giant.

The company has struggled to pay outstanding spectrum and revenue-sharing dues since a landmark 2019 Supreme Court order widened the scope of revenues on which the payments are assessed.

The court also dismissed a similar petition from larger rival Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, but the rejection will have more of an impact on Vodafone Idea, India's third-biggest telecoms carrier with an estimated net debt of $25 billion as of September.

The company's stock fell as much as 10% on Monday following the court ruling.

"We believe... very firmly, these are misconceived writ petitions," the court said, dismissing the requests.

Vodafone Idea approached the court after the government rejected its request for a waiver on interest and penalties it owes on $9.76 billion in dues, which the company said was putting its survival at risk.

The firm, a joint venture between UK-based Vodafone Group Plc VOD.L and India's Aditya Birla Group, had asked the judges to direct New Delhi to act "in public interest" and protect the "sensitive telecom sector".

To help Vodafone Idea, the government has gradually converted part of the dues into equity and increased its stake in the company to 49%.

The ruling on adjusted gross revenue has been the biggest overhang for India's telecom industry, increasing demands on companies by billions of dollars.

"No support will lead to a point of no return," Vodafone Idea CEO Akshaya Moondra wrote in an April 17 letter to the government. The company "will not be able to operate beyond FY26".

"The request cannot be considered," India's communications ministry wrote in response on April 29.

(Reporting by Munsif Vengattil and Nandan Mandayam; Editing by Saad Sayeed, Kirsten Donovan)

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Recasts paragraph 1, adds details and background throughout

May 13 (Reuters) - Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, India's second-largest telecom operator, beat quarterly profit estimates on Tuesday, helped by a continued boost in its revenue per user from last year's price hikes and a growing subscriber base.

The company reported a consolidated net profit of 110.22 billion rupees ($1.29 billion) for the quarter ending March 31, above analysts' average expectation of 65.24 billion rupees, as per data compiled by LSEG.

Airtel benefited from a net tax gain of 28.92 billion rupees during the quarter.

Its average revenue per user (ARPU) – a key telecom performance metric – rose 17.2% year-on-year to 245 rupees. The company has the highest ARPU among peers.

Telecom firms continue to benefit from last year's tariff hikes, analysts have said.

India's three private mobile carriers - Reliance Industries-owned RELI.NS-Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea VODA.NS - raised tariffs in July 2024 for the first time in over two years, aiming to recoup billions invested in 5G technology.

Last month, Jio reported an ARPU of 206.2 rupees for the quarter and a 24.5% rise in profit. Vodafone Idea VODA.NS has yet to report results.

India's telecom sector has seen intense competition for market share since Jio's entry in 2017, with it overtaking peers to command the largest user base.

Airtel's user base rose 4.4% year-on-year to 424 million as of March 31, compared to Jio's 488.2 million.

Its revenue from operations came in at 478.76 billion rupees, below analysts' estimate of 487.47 billion rupees.

The March quarter marked the first time Airtel's results fully reflected the revenue contribution from unit Indus Towers INUS.NS, which it began consolidating after gaining a controlling stake last year.

Shares of Bharti Airtel closed 2.7% lower ahead of results.

($1 = 85.2780 Indian rupees)

(Reporting by Aleef Jahan in Bengaluru; Editing by Savio D'Souza and Shailesh Kuber)

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Corrects headline to say Sunil Mittal is in advanced, not early, talks for a Haier India stake

May 9 (Reuters) - Sunil Mittal, the founder of India's Bharti Airtel BRTI.NS, is in advanced talks for a 49% stake worth $2 billion in the Indian unit of Chinese electronics and appliance maker Haier 600690.SS, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter.

(Reporting by Nandan Mandayam in Bengaluru)

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