The Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal on Monday adjourned its hearing on the limited mobility issue, and will hear the appeal on March 17.
The Cellular Operators Association of India said it would not take any legal step on the issue, unlike what it had said earlier.
Indian cellular companies added 13.7 lakh (1.37 million) customers in January this year, taking its subscriber base to 2.33 crore (23.3 million) even as CDMA based mobile companies added another 218,000 customers during the period in reference.
The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) upholds government's decision on dual technology for RCom.
With a sharp spurt in growth, the GSM industry has witnessed the highest ever subscriber additions in September at 4.4 million, taking the cellular subscriber base to 91 million.
GSM operators in the country have added 14.49 million new users in the month of March, taking the total GSM subscriber base to 569.55 million, an industry body said.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) of the country's four new GSM operators who got licences in 2008 - Uninor, S-Tel, Videocon and Etisalat DB - was between Rs 8.50 and Rs 39 in the January-March quarter.
Telecom tribunal on Monday fixed April 2 as the date for hearing of petitions by Association of Basic Telecom Operators, Cellular Operators Association of India, Data Access and Bharti Telesonic against telecom regulator's IUC regime.
In a strong pitch for limiting cut-throat competition, GSM operators have urged the government to limit the number of telecom operators per circle.
According to the latest data released by Cellular Operators' Association of India, the total GSM subscriber base rose to 257,85 million, up from 249.35 million in November 2008, a growth of about 3.25 per cent in December.
The Cellular Operators Association of India has suggested that the government, in allocating telecom licence, consider applicants with experience and impose a five-year lock-in period under which promoters cannot sell their equity.
The Cellular Operators Association of India on Monday clarified it had no intention of 'suing' the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on its recent move to release a consultation paper on unified licensing regime.
Cellular Operators Association of India on Tuesday said the department of telecom's decision to treat fixed wireless service as limited mobile service would benefit 60 million cell users.
The GSM operators have asked the government to remove Permanent Account Number (PAN) as a requirement to acquire mobile connection to increase tele-density in the rural areas and also sought rationalisation of multiple taxes and duties in the sector.
Mobile phone firms are willing to let go of inactive subscribers because holding on to them doesn't help in any way in the new order.
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.
Virtually bringing the entire industry into the picture, telecom tribunal TDSAT on Monday directed Reliance Communications, HFCL, Shyam Telelinks, BSNL and MTNL to become a party to a petition challenging changes to spectrum allocation norms among others.
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.
BSNL, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, who also provide GSM technology-based services, are not part of the report.
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.
The fall in GSM-based cellular subscribers growth continued with just 979,000 additions in May 2004, at 2.81 crore (28.1 million), with the Bharti Group cornering over one-fourth of the market at 73.43 lakh (7.34 million) customers.
For re-verification through Aadhaar-based eKYC process, the operator will send a verification code to the mobile number of the subscriber.
Industry body COAI plans to approach DoT citing Supreme Court's 2012 order
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.
India's cellular phone sector added a record number of users in November after a state-run telecom firm went national with its mobile services.
GSM operators may face the music as DoT considers the decision of taking away excess spectrum.
The Cellular Operators Association of India, the GSM-based operators' lobby, on Friday pulled out of an official panel for reviewing spectrum allocation norms, alleging that the committee had a "predetermined mindset" and was ignoring all its suggestions.
India's cellular subscriber base rose to 1.33 crore (13.3 million) in April against 1.26 crore (12.6 million) in the previous month, even as the monthly addition was down at 647,000 users.
Private GSM operators on Thursday got a reprieve from Supreme Court, which has stayed Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's notices asking them to refund excess charges levied from customers on calls made to the networks of PSU telecom firms.
Cheistha Kochhar, 33, was a Doctoral Candidate studying behavioural research since she moved to London from Gurugram, Haryana, last year.
Local and domestic long distance mobile call tariffs may drop further, thanks to telecom regulator Trai's announcement to do away with a fee that private telecom operators pay to state-run BSNL.Private operators were hitherto paying the fee called Access Deficit Charge to BSNL at the rate of 0.75 per cent of their Adjusted Gross Revenue or about Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion) a year.
The petitioner had sought enforcement of existing laws on call drops.
GSM operators added 8.89 million subscribers in June, taking the total number of subscribers using the technology to 315.8 million.
The economic slowdown may have raised the spectre of job losses in most industries, but telecom is a notable exception. Far from cutting back, telecom companies expect to hire over 16,000 people, 15 to 20 per cent more than last year, to meet the unprecedented expansion in subscriber numbers, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India, the association for GSM service providers.
Delhi HC has refused to stay the process of spectrum allotment to RCom, giving a major setback to GSM operators.
The COAI decision comes in the wake of Anil Ambani group company Reliance Communications and two other CDMA players receiving approvals to offer GSM services in their respective circles of operation from the Department of Telecom on Friday.
Cellular Operator Association of India, a lobby group of GSM operators, on Tuesday said it is not against competition in the industry and welcomes "open and healthy competition".
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