Cellular operators have accused Reliance Infocomm of offering predatory prices in Chennai and rest of Tamil Nadu, and sought immediate intervention of the telecom regulator.
The Supreme Court on Friday deferred till Monday (November 10) the hearing on the appeals filed by Cellular Operators' Association of India against a telecom tribunal verdict allowing WLL.
Rejecting the cellular operators' demand for withdrawal of its consultation paper on the unified licensing regime, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday said the "question of withdrawing the consultation paper does not arise".
Cellular operators have sought intervention by TRAI to restrain Reliance Infocomm from offering predatory tariffs in its new unlimited talktime plans claiming this was non-compliance of the regulator's order.
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 Cellular Operators Association of India, industry body representing GSM operators, had argued that TTSL's spectrum was allotted through the same press release issued on January 10, 2008, which led to the cancellation of 122 licences.
The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on wireless in local loop matter to January 13, 2004, giving time to the cellular operators to reply to basic operators' response.
The private cellular operators have asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to consider fixing the annual licence fee at 6 per cent across all segments, as part of full unification of telecom services.
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.
As the reports trickled that the permission for the use of twin-technology would benefit the aspiring Reliance Communication, an Anil Ambani group company, Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) shot a letter to the government saying that such a permission was against the existing policy and is tantamount to favouring a few.
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.
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.
According to sources, Idea Cellular has agreed to provide interconnection to RCom thereby not becoming a part of Cellular Operators' Association of India's likely petition against Trai's directive on the same. Besides, other operators to provide interconnectivity to RCom GSM network are Aircel and Spice Communication.
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 average revenue per user of private cellular operators have dropped by 17 per cent in 2003-04 from Rs 523 in the first quarter to Rs 432 in the fourth quarter mainly due to a continuous fall in tariffs.
New telecom operators who have been given licences to operate pan-India GSM mobile services are all set to fight a bitter battle with the established GSM players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular.
The auction of radio waves used for mobile services saw a muted opening on Tuesday, with five rounds attracting bids worth about Rs 11,000 crore from telecom companies. The government has put over 10,500 Mhz spectrum in eight frequency bands -- 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz, valued at Rs 96,238 crore at base price, for auction.
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telcom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) have opposed the proposal to compensate consumers.
Cellular industry is on the brink of financial crisis with the accumulated losses at over Rs 7,100 crore.
Basic telecom operators have sought Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's intervention to examine the mobile-to-mobile STD tariff cut by the cellular operators saying that new tariffs are "anti-competitive and anti-consumer."
Adani Data Networks said it plans to create a private 5G network for its operations. However, it acquired the spectrum in the last 5G auction alongside three telecom companies. Subsequently, it was granted a unified licence for access services, which enables it to provide telecom services in the country.
Reliance Jio accuses COAI of malafide intention.
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.
Telecom tribunal TDSAT has decided to hear all three petitions against TRAI filed by BSNL and COAI collectively on May 26.
The CDMA and GSM operators in the country are at loggerheads once again, this time over the implementation of mobile number portability.
Cellular Operators Association of India, the association for GSM operators, has taken legal opinion which clearly states that the government cannot go in for auctioning of 2G spectrum and deprive them of additional spectrum.
The government on Tuesday started allocating GSM spectrum to new telecom players, commencing with the Tamil Nadu circle including Chennai, in a move that would infuse more competition in the mobile telephony space.Five new players -- Videocon-promoted Datacom, Idea Cellular, realty major Unitech, Swan Telecom and Loop Telecom -- have been given start-up 4.4 MHz GSM spectrum in Tamil Nadu circle.
The apex body of CDMA operators, has shot off a letter to the telecom ministry alleging that the GSM operators were given spectrum "way beyond their licences".
Inching towards the 50 million mark, the GSM subscriber base in India touched 44.92 million in June, 2005 adding 1.57 million users with telecom operator Bharti enjoying a market share of over 27 per cent.
India's smartphone exports have set a new benchmark, surging past the $2 billion mark in October - the highest monthly total ever recorded. This milestone, according to estimates from the Indian Cellular and Electronics Association (ICEA), an industry body representing both global and domestic mobile device manufacturers, underscores the country's growing prominence in global mobile supply chains.
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.
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.
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