The government is looking at a time frame within the first two weeks of July to kick off and complete the upcoming 5G auctions, according to discussions between officials and stakeholders. It is expected that the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) will give its recommendations on the base price by March, after which the necessary cabinet clearances will be given. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) had earlier looked at undertaking the auction in the first quarter of 2022 but decided to push it back. Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had also said that the auctions are likely to take place in April-May.
Consumers can expect a 5G launch in the country soon. Telecom companies (telcos) say if auctions take place on time - the target is July - they would be able to offer some services in a few cities by the end of this year and a full roll-out from 2023. But the question is: will 5G turn the tables for telcos financially? Will average revenue per user (ARPU) improve? Will mobile consumers upgrade to 5G quickly and pay more? Will the expanded functions that 5G enables drum up sufficient revenues? In simple terms, will telcos make more money?
The government is engaged in talks with telecom firms for a launch of commercial 5G services in some cities by Independence Day and has assured them that spectrum auction will take place in April-May, providing them a three to four-month window for the rollout. A top executive of a leading telecom gear company said the deadline was feasible in some cases. "It can be achieved in some cities as it will take us 4-6 weeks to deploy a network, once the equipment or components have reached India.
For 2100-MHz, 2300-MHz and 2500-MHz bands across circles; aim to offer these with 3G and 4G in February
From January 15, callers will have to dial numbers with prefix '0' for making calls from landline to mobile phone. Announcing the decision, the communications ministry said the move would free up sufficient numbering resources for future use, and nearly 2,539 million numbering series are expected to be generated as a result. There will be no change with respect to dialling numbers for fixed-to fixed, mobile-to-fixed, and mobile-to-mobile calls.
IAMAI in a statement, which represents digital businesses in India, said Trai's recommendation to formulate standards of anonymisation and de-identification was akin to putting the cart before the horse, and till such time the Srikrishna Committee submits the report, making these standards would be like groping in the dark.
Jio's revenue increase was phenomenal in many circles: In Haryana, the RMS gain was 13 percentage points; in Bihar, 20 percentage points; in Odisha, 15 percentage points; and in Assam, 11 percentage points. However, incumbent telcos said this increase was only in three quarters, and it happened because of an order by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which tweaked the definition of significant market player (SMP) for predatory pricing.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) to make a presentation detailing the pros and cons of the controversial Indian 5G standard, also known as 5Gi, which the government has been pushing for. The move comes after serious differences emerged among telcos with regard to the technology's efficacy and implementation.
Rs 3,050-crore penalty on Airtel, Voda Idea gets nod. Final decision will be taken by DoT.
Speaking to PTI, Vaishnaw said that the telecom reforms package cleared by the Cabinet is adequate for the survival of existing players, and will ensure robust competition in the sector. With more reforms, and more structural changes, that are in the pipeline, "more players should come", he added.
Reliance Jio had proposed that besides satellite connectivity, In-Flight Connectivity can be provided using cellular network as well.
The four-member committee will be headed by Prasar Bharati CEO Shashi S Vempati. The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting said the present guidelines issued by it in 2014 on Television Rating agencies in India were notified after detailed deliberations by the Parliamentary Committee, Committee on Television Rating Points (TRP) constituted by the ministry and recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority etc.
Tells operators to modify ads on speeds they offer.
Trai has said the three operators were "intentionally denying and delaying" the provision of points of interconnects (PoIs) to Jio, "only to restrict a new entrant thus violating the terms and conditions of licence and regulations of the Authority which also caused a lot of inconvenience to the consumers."
While only 78.15 per cent of Jio's total subscriber base was active, Airtel boasts of 98.14 per cent active customers.
Successful bidders will have to pay 25 per cent of the amount upfront for sub 1 GHz, and 50 per cent upfront for higher frequency bands.
Airtel CEO said, the 5G ecosystem is yet to develop in India and the prices are very high. Telecom companies including Vodafone Idea (VI) and Reliance Jio have also said that the current prices are exorbitant.
Bidding for the sixth round of spectrum auction for radiowaves worth Rs 3.92 lakh crore will start from March 1, according to a notice issued by the Department of Telecom on Wednesday. The long-awaited spectrum auction is being held after a gap of four years and over two years after the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) calculated and recommended base price for the radiowaves. The DoT has fixed January 12 for the pre-bid conference and January 28 as the last date for seeking clarification to the notice.
The telecom ministry will set up an intelligence unit and a consumer protection system as part of continuing efforts to tackle the menace of pesky calls as well as to take strict action against financial frauds perpetrated using telecom resources.
Big three telecom companies term Jio's free voice calls predatory pricing
Close on the heels of reducing the tariff for international bandwidth, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Thursday slashed tariff for domestic bandwidth (domestic leased circuit) between 3 to 70 per cent, a move which would boost broadband
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has constituted an expert group to explore the possibility of setting up an exchange to resolve interconnection issues between different operators, a move which could provide a solution to various problems in
Mittal said he discussed a plethora of issues with Commerce and Industry Minister Piyush Goyal and sought the government's support for faster clearances to streamline the group's investment plans.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India chairman Pradip Baijal on Monday said the regulator would work towards reducing the differences among telecom operators while ensuring competitive tariffs along with service quality.
The Sunil Mittal led firm accused the regulator of "wrongly" holding Jio's promotional offer as compliant with the regulatory guidelines
The Mukesh Ambani-owned company had complained to Trai about incumbents offering segmented offers to different customers
India's telecom subscriber base grew to over 1.17 billion in October with Bharti Airtel maintaining its leadership in mobile subscriber addition that accounts for over 98 per cent of total connections in the country, according to the monthly report released by sector regulator Trai on Wednesday. This is the second consecutive month when Airtel added highest number of subscribers. In September, it had regained the leadership position in subscriber addition after a gap of four years. The Sunil Bharti Mittal-led company added 3.67 million new customers in October, taking its total wireless customer base to 330.28 million in October 2020, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) report said.
Although the industry is disappointed with the government decision not to lower spectrum prices at a time telcos are saddled with over Rs 4-trillion debt and an estimated Rs 1.43-trillion licence fee dues, the DCC has relaxed the payment structure to offer some relief to the financially stressed sector.
By the end of December 2021, India had 389 million users who did not have access to mobile Internet, while there were 765.8 million mobile Internet users in the country.
Jio to charge users 6 paisa/min for voice calls made to rival phone networks. However, these charges are not applicable on calls made by Jio users to other Jio phones and to landline phones and calls made using WhatsApp, FaceTime and other such platforms.
Sumit Bhattacharya lists what the leaked WhatsApp conversations reveal about the man named Arnab Goswami, and a certain PDG.
Trai's recommendations should incentivise all serious operators to look at how to reach telephony to the hands of people living in villages which have a population of 500 or 1,000, which they would otherwise refrain from.
'Tinkering will not do. Merely staggering spectrum dues comes nowhere near solving the problem,' cautions Rahul Khullar.
The telecommunications regulator had recommended last month that the reserve price for spectrum in the 900 megahertz band in some key cities be cut by about 60 percent, and also suggested a 37 percent cut in the reserve price for spectrum in the 1800 megahertz band.
The telecommunications regulator had recommended last month that the reserve price for spectrum in the 900 megahertz band in some key cities be cut by about 60 percent, and also suggested a 37 percent cut in the reserve price for spectrum in the 1800 megahertz band.
Refuting the allegations of TRAI that the telecom service providers are making huge gains in the sector, the firms had said they have been investing hugely on the infrastructure.
The petitioner had sought enforcement of existing laws on call drops.
Vodafone and Bharti have pointed out that, for data, their revenue realisation should be at Rs 30-35 per GB for them to cover their costs as opposed to the current figure of over Rs 11 per GB. But Jio has suggested a gradual increase to Rs 15 per GB and then maybe to Rs 20 per GB after six to nine months.
Twitter accounts of leading industrialist Ratan Tata and Trai chairman R S Sharma were also hacked
What really transpired when Modi went to Facebook HQ last September.
