NEW DELHI: Reliance Jio Infocomm's move to offer free voice calls and cheap data will force telcos to review their strategy for the upcoming auctions, say experts.

While there will be a temptation to bid conservatively to preserve cash for the inevitable price war triggered by Jio's aggressive tariff plans, analysts say Idea Cellular and Vodafone India will have no choice but to bid aggressively for 4G data airwaves, if they are to compete with Jio, in the upcoming auctions scheduled to take place next month.

Stocks of Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communication came under pressure after Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani elaborated on the features related to free voice calls and cheaper data rates for its telecom venture Reliance Jio. While addressing the company’s 42nd annual general meeting (AGM), Ambani said, “Jio’s pricing is about solving customers’ pain points and customer should pay only for one service – voice or data.”

Mumbai: India’s No. 3 mobile phone carrier, Idea Cellular, strongly denied a news report on Tuesday that it was in exploratory talks about a merger with larger rival Vodafone India.

A spokeswoman for Idea’s parent, conglomerate Aditya Birla, called the CNBC TV18 report of talks between Idea and Vodafone “baseless and absolutely false”.

India's third largest national mobile operator Idea Cellular has announced rapid expansion of the 4G LTE services in 390 towns across 32 districts of Maharashtra and Goa.

Idea has been the first and only service provider to offer 4G services in 300 towns of Maharashtra and Goa.

The telecom major reported a decline of 74% y-o-y in its net profit at Rs 217 crore in the June quarter. During the quarter, revenues grew by around 8% and total expenditure grew by 15% at R9,486.6 crore and R8,331.5 crore, respectively.

The BSE Telecom Index ended Tuesday’s trading session at 1278.59, down 1.15% or 14.85 points. Shares of Tata Communications and Reliance Communication declined between 2% and 3%. Shares of Bharti Airtel were down by 0.87% to close at Rs 348.85.

Idea Cellular has fallen to its 52-week low of Rs 96.55, down 6% on the BSE in early morning trade, after the company reported weak set of earnings for the quarter ended June 30, 2016 (Q1FY17).

Idea Cellular, India's third largest mobile operator by subscribers, on Monday posted a 74% year-on-year (YoY) decline in the consolidated profit after tax to Rs 220 crore in Q1FY17, compared with Rs 855 crore in the same period a year ago. Net sales grew 7.9% YoY to Rs 9,484 crore.

India's third largest telco Idea Cellular's net profit is estimated to slip 23.5% at Rs 440 crore in April-June quarter from Rs 575.6 crore in the quarter-ago period.

According to a poll conducted by CNBC-TV18, the telecom provider's revenue may see marginal gain of 2.9% at Rs 9,760 crore against Rs 9,483.9 crore in the last quarter.

India’s fastest growing telecom operator Idea Cellular announced expansion of its high-speed 4G LTE services in over nine districts of the North East Service Area.

The telecom operator’s services are now available in Agartala, Aizawl, Imphal, Kohima, Mokokchung, Senapati and Tura, in addition to Dimapur launched earlier this year. With the rapid expansion in a fairly short span of time, Idea’s 4G LTE services are now available to over 1.7 million people in North East.

Maximum consumer complaints for poor service and call drops have been received against Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications in the last three years and the trend continues, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

As per data shared by Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha "regarding poor services and call drops received by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai)", nearly one-third complaints received in the first half of 2016 are against Airtel.

Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular shares slumped after the telecom majors announced cut in their data tariffs, contributing to the stock markets fall with the BSE Telecom index plunging 3.23 per cent on Monday.

Idea Cellular shares closed 6.52 per cent down at Rs 103.90. The scrip opened at Rs 112 and touched its high and low of 112.70 and Rs 102.75, respectively.

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