The government on Tuesday set a fresh deadline of February 28 for the Internet service providers to stop offering virtual private network services unless permitted to do so.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on a petition filed by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India challenging an order of TDSAT holding that the regulatory body had no authority to adjudicate on disputes raised by a service provider.
The Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has refused to give an interim order against Reliance's proposed roaming facility on WLL phones as the telecom regulator Trai said it was examining Reliance's reply.
The two companies were earlier expecting to complete the merger formalities and regulatory approvals by June 30 and to start operating as one entity from July 1.
The mistrust between the authorities and service providers can end if the contentious issues are addressed as a package deal.
The Supreme Court Monday said the Centre was testing its "patience" and "emasculating" tribunals by not appointing officials to the quasi-judicial bodies which are facing severe crunch of presiding officers as well as judicial and technical members and sought action on the matter by September 13.
Dependence on advertising remains absolute, with about 90 per cent of revenues coming from it.
The government has sent show-cause notices to 5 telecom firms including Reliance Communications and Tata Teleservices for alleged understatement of revenues of over Rs 10,000 crore.
The CAG report, tabled in Parliament, states the interest on the short payment stood at Rs 1,052.13 crore for the period up to March 2016.
Filing an affidavit before the TDSAT, the department of telecommunication has requested the tribunal to dismiss the petition of telecom operators challenging the government directive to stop 3G roaming immediately.
The UAE-based Emirates Telecommunication Corporation (Etisalat) on Thursday filed a petition against Shahid Balwa and Vinod Goenka, promoters of the beleaguered Swan Telecom, for "fraud and misrepresentation".
Passing an interim order, the tribunal directed the country's largest telecom operator to pay 50 per cent of the Rs 50 crore penalty imposed by the DoT within a period of two weeks.
The Supreme Court will decide this question with regard to broadcast regulator TRAI's intervention in a contractual dispute between two cable TV service providers.
The trio has been voicing their criticism of Trai's recommendations and have asked the government to dump the report, which according to them are 'retrograde' and 'absurd'.
In a blow to GSM operators, who have been demanding that auditor CAG be stopped from vetting their account books, tribunal TDSAT has declined an interim relief, saying it had no powers to intervene.
The tribunal accepted the government's argument that licence or spectrum is a state asset over which Aircel had no right of ownership.
A bench headed by Justice H S Kapadia, while dismissing Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communication's petitions, has upheld telecom tribunal TDSAT's order of September 2005 that held these services are not fixed lines telephones, but limited mobile. The Supreme Court had earlier reserved its judgement on a petition filed by Tata Teleservices challenging the telecom tribunal's order which classified the company's fixed wireless phone service 'Walky' as limited mobile.
The telecom regulator in the second ultimatum to GSM operators, including Bharti, Vodafone and BSNL, has given August 21 as the deadline to give interconnections to the RCom GSM network. Trai has cited it as a licencing condition to provide interconnection among the service provider implying if a mobile operator does not give interconnection to another based on mutual commercial agreement, it is a violation of license condition attracting penalty.
Trai member A K Sawhney had been acting as chairman since Nripendra Mishra retired on March 22 this year. Before joining Trai, Sarma was member of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal and is a well-known expert in the field, the regulator said.
The decks have been cleared for the appointment of TDSAT member JS Sarma as the new chairman of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Sarma will succeed former Trai chairman Nripendra Mishra who retired on March 22, 2009.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its judgement on a petition filed by Tata Teleservices challenging the telecom tribunal's order, which classified the company's fixed wireless phone service 'Walky' as limited mobile. TDSAT had ruled that Walky service offered by Tatas was a mobile service, thus the private company was liable to pay a levy called Access Deficit Charge (ADC) to state-owned BSNL as per the interconnect order of telecom regulator Trai.
Leading broadcasters Zee-Turner and Set Discovery have challenged in TDSAT sectoral regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's guidelines on pricing of cable TV charges in non-conditional access system areas. Trai regulation directs them to provide their channels on a 'la carte' basis.
The Delhi high court on Thursday refrained from stopping the spectrum allocation exercise initiated by the government, but said the distribution of frequency depends on the final outcome of the petition filed by GSM operators grouping COAI.
The government on Wednesday accepted spectrum review committee's recommendation of allocating additional frequency to existing GSM operators based on TRAI's subscriber linked formula and in multiples of 1 MHz.
The move should help as many as 25 aspirants, including Unitech, Parsvnath, DLF, HFCL and Shyam Telecom, seeking to enter the lucrative GSM mobile services space.
Solicitor General of India Goolam E Vahanvati appearing for the Department of Telecommunication on Thursday informed the sectoral tribunal TDSAT that on January 10 the government had issued 121 LoIs, of which 120 have already complied with its terms and conditions.
Passing an interim order, Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal also directed BSNL to restore RCom's inter- connection within 48 hours of such payment. TDSAT Chairman Justice Arun Kumar said: "I am of a view that the petitioner (Rcom) should deposit an amount of 65 per cent of disputed claim in one week and respondent should restore the connection with 48 hours of the deposit."
Taking the government head on, four GSM mobile operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Spice -- have decided to "unitedly" approach the Delhi High Court against telecom tribunal TDSAT's interim order not to stay the spectrum allocation process.
Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Authority had on December 12 refused to stay the government's process of awarding new licences and allocating airwaves to mobile firms, a decision which existing GSM players say would hurt them Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular are the major GSM players in Cellular Operators Association of India, but it is learnt that there is no consensus within the lobby group over moving the high court.
B K Modi-promoted Spice Communications will decide before November 12 whether it will pull out of the COAI's petition in the TDSAT, where the association has challenged the government's decision allowing dual technology use and enhanced subscriber-based spectrum allocation.
The government has accepted Telecom Engineering Centre's report that has suggested tough norms for spectrum allocation to GSM operators, a move that may make it difficult for players like Airtel, Vodafone and Idea to get additional frequency.
Tribunal Chairman Justice Arun Kumar adjourned the hearing after Solicitor General Goolam E Vahanvati, appearing for the Centre, told the tribunal that "there will be no allocation of spectrum to any player".
The petitioner said the companies were increasing the prices just to earn huge profit. Companies like Bharti Airtel had posted an annual profit of more than 90 per cent, the NGO said.
Supreme Court had asked the government to issue RCom a NoC for spectrum sale to Reliance Jio Infocomm by December 9 if it furnishes a corporate guarantee of Rs 1,400 crore
During the proceedings, Spice Telecom's counsel Mukul Rohatgi contended that DoT decided not to allow the licence as the operator had a turnover of only Rs 1,100 crore (Rs 11 billion). The decision was discriminatory, he said. However, Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal declined to pass any interim relief to the firm.
The government on Tuesday submitted before sectoral tribunal TDSAT that its decision to allow dual technology is a matter of policy decision and cellular operators have no right to challenge it.
Dierct-to-home operator TataSky objected on Monday to a plea by broadcaster Turner International (India) to excuse it from a case involving its partner Zee and the Tata-Star joint venture.
Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal has clubbed the two cases filed by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited challenging Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's decision to reduce the levy collected from private operators.
State-run BSNL on Saturday approached telecom tribunal TDSAT against sector regulator TRAI's decision to cut a levy paid by private operators to the public sector company for its rural operations.
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