Bharti Airtel on Tuesday said it recorded the highest net wireless subscriber additions in October, adding 1.93 million mobile subscribers during the month, thus reflecting steady growth amid a shifting telecom landscape.

The company said it remains committed to supporting India’s digital growth and providing robust connectivity solutions.

As per latest Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, the telecom service provider added 1,928,263 wireless users in October, marking a significant milestone.

On the other hand, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea reported subscriber losses of 3.76 million and 1.98 million, respectively.

State-run BSNL added 501,224 users while MTNL saw a marginal decline of 2,273 users in October.

The office market in India saw a robust 14 per cent growth (year-on-year) in 2024, with leasing activity across the top six cities reaching 66.4 million square feet, according to a report on Tuesday.

Bengaluru led the Grade A office space demand, with highest-ever leasing volume of 21.7 million square feet, marking an impressive 40 per cent growth, according to a Colliers report.

Demand scale-up was also evident in Hyderabad and Mumbai. With 12.5 and 10.0 million square feet of leasing activity respectively, both cities witnessed double-digit annual office space demand for the first time in 2024.

Delhi-NCR too witnessed healthy space uptake and Grade A demand almost touched 10 million square feet mark in 2024.

Ampere's losses also surged nearly 11 times to Rs 215 crore last fiscal, from Rs 20 crore in FY23.

If the company's non-operative (one-time cost) of Rs 477 crore is included, then the company suffered a massive loss of Rs 693 crore in FY24, as per its financials with the Registrar of Companies (ROC).

The reason for the decline in the company's income was drop in its scooter sales.

Ampere also offers three-wheeler electric vehicles along with electric scooters. Electric scooters accounted for 70 per cent of the company's sales in FY24.

The company's income from EV scooters fell 59 per cent to Rs 432 crore. However, sales of electric three-wheelers grew 2.5 times year-on-year to Rs 178 crore.

Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, India's largest telecom operator, has seen a decline of nearly 1.65 crore subscribers over the past four months.

Reliance Jio lost 37.6 lakh mobile subscribers in October, 79 lakh in September 2024, 40 lakh in August 2024 and over 7.58 lakh in July 2024.

According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) data, India's second-largest telecom company, Airtel, gained nearly 24 lakh subscribers in October, after losing more than 14.3 lakh subscribers in September.

Airtel lost 24 lakh subscribers in August 2024 and 16 lakh subscribers in July 2024. Vodafone Idea lost more than 19 lakh mobile subscribers in October, compared to a decline of 15.5 lakh in September.

The decline in the subscriber base for the private telecom player can be attributed to the tariff hike by the companies in mid-2024, which came into effect in July.

As smartphones remain integral to people’s daily lives, 59 per cent of the respondents plan to purchase a Gen AI-enabled smartphone within the next year, with the trend being strongest in the US, followed by Germany and France, a global survey showed on Monday.

GenAI was familiar to 32 per cent of the respondents in a survey conducted by Counterpoint Research across seven countries, namely USA, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Poland, and Japan.

As per the results, GenAI awareness was highest in North America (72 per cent) and lowest in Japan (7 per cent).

“GenAI has quickly gained traction due to its accessibility and versatility across personal, professional, and educational applications. Everyday tasks, such as writing assistance, document editing, and research have been made simpler, proving it is an invaluable tool for users,” said Tarun Pathak, Research Director at Counterpoint.

India is poised to lead the global race towards 6G, with an exciting opportunity to drive technological leadership, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) said on Monday.

With the ongoing efforts like the Bharat 6G vision, the government aims to create 10 per cent of 6G patents from India and is evaluating 470 proposals on 'Accelerated research on 6G Ecosystem'.

The rapid pace of digital innovations in telecom is evident from the massive adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) and GenAI technologies across areas like customer service, operational support, network optimisation and automation, predictive maintenance, fraud prevention and so on,” said Lt Gen Dr SP Kochhar, Director General, COAI.

According to a recent KPMG India report, 55 per cent of the organisations in technology, media and telecommunications (TMT) sectors in India have fully integrated AI, with 37 per cent in the scaling phase.

Criticising the US Department of Justice (DoJ) lawsuit and its “overbroad proposal”, Google on Monday said that before it appeals in court, the company has filed its own remedies proposal, based on the actual findings in the court's decision.

Stressing that the company “strongly disagrees with and will appeal the decision in the DoJ search distribution lawsuit,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Vice President, Regulatory Affairs at Google, said filing the remedies proposal “was a decision about our search distribution contracts, so our proposed remedies are directed to that”.

In its remedies proposal, Google said that browser companies like Apple and Mozilla should continue to have the freedom to do deals with whatever search engine they think is best for their users.

Tech billionaire Elon Musk has raised prices of its top-tier subscription service (Premium+) for his X social media platform by a massive 35 per cent for both new and existing users in India, including across global markets.

Effective from December 21, the Premium+ users in India will need to shell out Rs 1,750 a month — up from Rs 1,300 now, which is an approximately 35 per cent hike.

Similarly, on an annual basis, the Premium+ users in the country will need to pay Rs 18,300, up from Rs 13,600 at the moment (up by almost 35 per cent).

This marks the largest price increase since the social media platform’s acquisition by the tech billionaire in 2022.

In India, the basic tier subscription rate remains unchanged at Rs 243 and premium tier at Rs 650 as well.

In the US, the Premium+ service will cost $22 a month, up from $16. Annual subscription cost has increased to $229 from $168.

The Indian government and the Asian Development Bank (ADB) on Friday signed an agreement for a $350 million policy-based loan under the second subprogramme of the Strengthening Multimodal and Integrated Logistics Ecosystem (SMILE) programme, to strengthen the domestic manufacturing sector and improve the resilience of supply chains.

According to the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, the SMILE programme is a programmatic policy-based loan (PBL) to support the government in undertaking wide-ranging reforms in the logistics sector in India.

The approach comprises two subprograms, which aim to expand India’s manufacturing sector and improve the resilience of its supply chains.

As many as 25,202 public charging stations for electric vehicles (EVs) have been installed in the country to date, the government said on Friday.

Karnataka leads with 5,765 EV public charging stations, followed by Maharashtra at 3,728 and Uttar Pradesh at 1,989, Minister of State for Heavy Industries and Steel, Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply.

As per the information received from the Ministry of Power, 271 EV public charging stations are installed in Chhattisgarh.