However, the government is readying a relief package and it could include a cut in the licence fee to 5 per cent, two years' moratorium on paying spectrum charges with interest, and referring the GST tax refund issue to the Council.
The cellular operators criticised the majority judgement of the TDSAT, which had permitted the WLL services, saying there was no reason given by the two judges to justify their views which were contrary to those of the TDSAT chairman.
In the backdrop of some localities in the national capital region removing mobile towers on the ground that they pose radiation hazards, cellular operators on Monday refuted these allegations, describing them as "having no scientific basis".
COAI sid the huge volume of traffic from RJio will pull down the weighted average voice realisation for other operators from 30-40 paise to 22-25 paise per minute or lower
Companies like Amazon Prime Video are also temporarily lowering bit rates -- a measure of how much data is being transferred -- to ease pressure on telecom network infrastructure.
The government will have to make substantial payments, as well as forego revenues in FY'23, if it wants to work on the survival of Vodafone Idea because it will have to extend the same incentives to the entire telecom sector. According to estimates, the industry has to spend around Rs 21,000-Rs 25,000 crore for spectrum which it bought on a deferred payment basis. Vodafone Idea has asked for a moratorium for another year (FY23). If granted, the government will have foregone the instalment payout for a third year in a row as it has already provided a moratorium for two years, giving telcos Rs 42,000 crore worth of relief.
The GSM telecom operators on Monday said that there was no scope for reducing call tariffs further and blamed the telecom regulator for slashing mobile termination charge below cost, but TRAI argued that its prescription was "cost based."
Cellular operators on Monday moved Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal against limited mobility operators accusing them of violating licence conditions and judicial orders of the tribunal.
Differences within the Cellular Operators Association of India have come out in the open again with Spice Telecom Chairman B K Modi supporting the government's move, announced on Monday, to launch "number portability" in four big cities and auction 3G spectrum for incumbents and new players.
Mukesh Ambani-led Reliance Jio lashed out at COAI.
The Supreme Court on Monday posted the interim application of COAI for final hearing in the first week of December, but refused to order status quo on service-specific licensing regime as sought by the cellular operators.
The Cellular Operators Association of India has provisioned for a massive increase in its budget towards the legal expenses to deal with the cases against WLL services.
The Department of Telecom on Tuesday approved applications of telecom companies -- Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and MTNL -- for conducting 5G trials but none of them will be using technologies of Chinese entities. The list of telecom gear makers approved for trials include Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, C-DOT and Reliance Jio's indigenously developed technologies.
Telecom regulator TRAI on Tuesday released a detailed consultation paper to discuss threadbare the modalities for auction of spectrum across multiple bands, including pricing, quantum and other conditions -- preparing the groundwork for 5G auctions slated for next year. Trai's comprehensive consultation paper runs into 207 pages and throws up 74 questions for industry-wide discussion, touching on crucial aspects like valuation and reserve price of spectrum, including 5G, quantum of spectrum, block size, eligibility conditions for participation in auction, roll-out obligations, spectrum cap, and surrender of spectrum. Norms will also be worked out for new frequencies such as 526-698 MHz and millimetre band, that is 24.25 - 28.5 GHz, in addition to bands such as 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300-3670 MHz.
Cellular operators' body COAI had, last year, alleged that the new entrant Reliance Jio was attempting to acquire customers by offering connection loaded with freebies, in the guise of a trial launch.
If Reliance Jio resets the rules of the game with low voice and data tariffs, most incumbents will find themselves back to square one.
Telcos say tests were done in the known problematic areas of Delhi-NCR, where operators face issues in obtaining cell sites.
The Cellular Operators Association of India on Tuesday filed an appeal in the Supreme Court against the Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal's majority judgement which had allowed limited mobility (WLL) services to basic operators.
Cellular industry is on the brink of financial crisis with the accumulated losses at over Rs 7,100 crore.
The mission - unveiled by Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad -- will enable strengthening of technological infrastructure for education, health, entrepreneurship and development.
Telecom major Bharti Airtel led the growth in segment with net addition of 1.31 million subscribers.
The top three operators - Airtel, Vodafone and Idea - which account for over 67 per cent of the GSM market, lost over 2.17 million users in September.
Telecom operators have opposed sectoral regulator Trai's proposal to review the tariff policy, saying the current regime has appropriate regulatory measures to protect the interest of consumers.
Trai's move is seen as a relief for the debt ridden sector and the industry body COAI expects that continuing with six paise mobile call termination charge will not have any impact on consumers as operators have already absorbed this charge in their recently increased mobile call and data rates.
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telcom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) have opposed the proposal to compensate consumers.
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Operators have invested billions of dollars in licence and spectrum.
Telecom regulator Trai on Wednesday said it would announce the revised tariffs for basic telecom services in the next two-three days.
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to telecom operator Bharti Airtel, GSM lobby COAI and private banks ICICI bank and American Express over unsolicited calls to mobile phones.
Indian GSM telecom operators added 11.25 million new subscribers in the month of May, taking the all-India cellular subscriber base to 444 million, according to cellular operators' association COAI.
BSNL, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, who also provide GSM technology-based services, are not part of the report.
Amid an existential crisis facing the firm over Rs 50,000 crore unpaid dues towards the government, billionaire Kumar Mangalam Birla on Wednesday stepped down as the chairman of Vodafone Idea Ltd. Birla -- who had in June offered to give away his holding in the joint venture with Britain's Vodafone to the government -- will cease to be a director and non-executive chairman of the company at the end of business hours on Wednesday, VIL said in a filing to the stock exchanges. It did not give any reason for Birla's decision. He will be replaced by Himanshu Kapania (who was earlier managing director and CEO of Birla's Idea Cellular) as the new chairman of Vodafone Idea Ltd.
Members of COAI, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Idea Cellular and others met in New Delhi and decided to go ahead with filing of the affidavit in TDSAT against the Telecom Engineering Centre's report. COAI has also questioned the government's move to allocate spectrum to two telecom PSUs -- BSNL and MTNL -- saying they have been given frequency out of turn as many other players have been waiting to get spectrum for months and even years now.
Ambani termed COAI's appeal to the telecom tribunal against the government granting RCom dual-use technology (CDMA and GSM) as "unnecessary and unwarranted". RCom, the country's largest provider of CDMA mobile services, recently received permission to start GSM services under its existing licence for which it paid a fee of Rs 1,651 crore (Rs 16.51 billion).
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.
Confident over second wave of revolution in mobile telephony coming from rural India, Cellular Operators Association of India said on Monday monthly additions would touch 10-million mark by December this year.
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.
A rare bonhomie among three private telecom companies in raising tariffs coming on the back of a bailout package by the government may have helped the telecom sector avert a crisis but the challenges haven't ceased to exist as the industry faces a cash-guzzling task of rolling out 5G networks in the coming months. The sector that provides direct and indirect employment to millions is projected to see Rs 1.3 lakh crore to Rs 2.3 lakh crore of investments in the coming years in creating robust infrastructure and building telecom and network products that have been incentivised by the government through PLI and other initiatives. After years of cut-throat competition and the apex court ruling on payment of past statutory dues left some players in the lurch, billionaire Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel and struggling Vodafone Idea almost in tandem raised tariffs, taking the plunge they had long been talking about.
Telecom tribunal TDSAT has decided to hear all three petitions against TRAI filed by BSNL and COAI collectively on May 26.
It aims to attract $100 billion investment and create 4 million jobs in the sector by 2022.
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