The reduction in mobile roaming rates is certainly great news for subscribers. But this happiness may not last long .
GSM-based mobile operators are gearing up to launch a key component of web-based value added service - instant messaging - in the next three weeks, where a subscriber can send and receive real time messages.
Telecom tribunal TDSAT on Monday rejected a contempt application filed by Anil Ambani group company Reliance Communications against Cellular Operators Association of India, for allegedly taking the legal battle on spectrum for a media trial.
Private GSM mobile players' lobby Cellular Operators Association of India launched on Wednesday another attack on the government, warning that any proposal to issue Letters of Intent to all prospective licencees will seriously hamper investors' confidence. According to COAI, the entry fee of Rs 1,651 crore (Rs 16.51 billion) for a pan-India licence, as fixed by the department of telecommunication is for spectrum bundled with license.
Communications Minister A Raja met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday and briefed him about the developments in the telecom sector including recent policy decision like introduction of number portability and releasing spectrum for third generation (3G) mobile services. The meeting lasted for about 25 minutes, official sources confirmed but did not give details.
India had 1.417 crore mobile phone subscribers at the end of May, 102.8 per cent more than at the end of the same month last year, an industry body said on Thursday.
Tatas' suggestion for auction stirs up hornet's nest.
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.
The GSM-based mobile operators in the country added 8.3 million subscribers in May taking the total subscriber base to 306.4 million.
In a reversal of its earlier stance on 3G, the Cellular Operators' Association of India has told Telecom Secretary D S Mathur that the release of 3G spectrum should be delayed till it is available for all operators.
India's 140 million mobile subscribers make missed calls to convey a pre-agreed message.
In a strategic climb-down, key members of the Cellular Operators Association of India have come to a consensus that they are willing to go for open auction of spectrum for second-generation services beyond 10 MHz.
The Cellular Operators Association of India on Tuesday announced the appointment of Dilip Modi as its chairman for a period of one year.
Sunil Mittal's Bharti Airtel maintained the top slot with a market share of 32.18 per cent and a total user base of 57.41 million. The company added 2.25 million users in January, up from 2.2 million added in December. COAI did not provide subscriber numbers of Reliance Communications, even though the CDMA major has GSM operations in the country's north-eastern circles.
India added over 13.5 million new GSM mobile subscribers in August, with Bharti Airtel adding a little over two million users to achieve close to 30 per cent market share.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is likely to finalise its recommendations on unified licensing regime in about one month.
The Commission was critical of the fact that the information relating to subscribers, which was confidential and lying with mobile companies, was being passed on to telemarketing agencies without the users' consent.
The Cellular Operators Association of India on Wednesday telecom regulator TRAI's order for slashing roaming charges by up to 56 per cent and said the move could lead to increase in basic tariffs.
The high mobile telephony penetration in India's major metros and cities is expected to lead to a dramatic churn in the space
In a strong attack on the telecom tribunal, Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) has argued in its petition to the Delhi High Court that the tribunal has erred in law and on facts in ignoring the three cardinal principles of grant of interim injunction.
Mumbai is a distant number two with 90 per cent, followed by Delhi at 83 per cent. The fourth metro, Kolkata, is way behind with 67 per cent. The four metros account for 16 per cent of the country's mobile subscriber base, but 25 per cent of the total revenue. That means their residents use their phones more and pay fatter bills than subscribers elsewhere in the country. This is the user profile that rings a bell for mobile phone marketers.
There is no plan to direct over the top (OTT) communications players who generate large amounts of traffic to give a 'fair and proportionate' share of their revenues to telecom network operators, the communications ministry has said. A senior official allayed any such apprehension by saying: "We have no proposal of this kind or anything like this which we are working on. "There is no fresh reference on this matter to the regulator (Trai)," he said. The ministry's view is significant as telecom network operators have been escalating this issue since July when Trai issued a consultation paper called 'Regulatory Mechanism Over OTT Communication Services and Selective Banning of OTT Services'.
'We have informed the government multiple times that the situation in the US and India are different.' 'Here, there will be a 500 MHz gap in the frequencies which will safely allow aviation without interference.'
The GSM-based mobile subscriber base has gone up by 994,000 in April at 2.71 crore (27.1 million) customers with the Bharti Group cornering almost one-fourth of the market with 67.58 lakh (6.76 million) customers.
The GSM-based mobile subscriber base has gone up by 15.08 lakh
Jio has accused incumbent telecom operators for not providing the required number of equipment to connect its mobile network with theirs
Indian mobile handset market was worth Rs 8,805 crore (Rs 88.05 billion) in 2004-05 out of which share of GSM handset was 84 per cent at Rs 7,384 crore (Rs 73.84 billion) with Nokia capturing a sizable chunk of marketshare at 62.3 per cent.
Concerned over the series of attacks on mobile phone towers in the valley, the Centre also issued an advisory to the state government.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is in the process of issuing a show-cause notice to Vodafone Idea (Vi) for delaying the payment of licence fee. Companies pay 8 per cent of their adjusted gross revenue as licence fee. This also includes a universal service obligation levy. The fee is collected from each of the 22 telecom circles in the country on a quarterly basis.
BSNL, Tata Teleservices and Reliance Communications, who also provide GSM technology-based services, are not part of the report.
Once launched, RJio services will cover over 18,000 towns and over 200,000 villages across all the 22 service areas of the country
Contending that the licence terms for cellular operators are far more lenient, the basic operators asked Trai to do a complete analysis of parameters such as entry fee, roll-out obligation and spectrum to arrive at a level playing field condition.
Delhi High Court says it can do so under the TRAI Act, rejects petitions filed by telecom associations.
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