The government on Friday unveiled long awaited Unified Licence norms that provide for delinking of spectrum from operational permits and allows companies to offer services using any technology.
The Department of Telecom on Monday said it would hold consultations with various operators on the issue of foreign direct investment but denied that the FDI issue was in any way linked to unified licencing regime.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has initiated discussions with banks to address financial stress in the telecom sector, particularly Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) that urgently requires fund infusion to stay afloat. There was a meeting of DOT officials and senior bankers on Friday on the issue of Vodafone, sources said, adding that banks have been asked to look for a solution within the prudential guidelines. According to sources, senior officials from the country's biggest lenders State Bank of India and Bank of Baroda were also present among others in the meeting. More such meetings are expected to take place in the coming days, they said.
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.
Numbers could be classified further into (140) marketing and (160 or 161) for service calls to easily identify the purpose of the call in the future.
The department of telecom will issue guidelines on raising the foreign direct investment limit to 74 per cent from 49 per cent next week.
The rush to enter the world's fastest-growing mobile services market has attracted a wide range of applicants for telecom licences with the Department of Telecommunications.
The government has issued a stern warning to telecom companies to put the required security system for Blackberry services in place within 15 days or stop the services. The directive has been issued to the respective service providers to work out with officials of Blackberry licensor Research in Motion (RIM) of Canada to provide full-proof security system in the country. Currently, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, BPL Mobile and Reliance are offering this premium service.
Telecom services across the country could suffer, with the Department of Telecom ready to recall over 2,200 of its officers on deputation in MTNL and BSNL.
A department of telecommunication official said the regulator has already put questions relating to uniform licence fee to the stakeholder in its consultation paper 'Overall Spectrum Management and Review of License Terms and Conditions'.
The government is considering the option of handing over operations of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) to BSNL through an agreement, instead of pursuing a merger route, a source privy to the development said. A final call on this is likely to be taken in a month's time. The source said the option of handing over debt-laden MTNL's operations to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) through an agreement is being looked into.
Shyam's application comes even as real estate major DLF Ltd confirmed on Wednesday that it will apply for telecom licences by Friday, the fourth real estate company to do so in the recent past.
The move comes against the backdrop of the US and some of its allies banning the purchase of Chinese telecom gear over security concerns and pressuring other countries to follow suit.
The Bombay High Court has dismissed Vodafone petition challenging the show cause notice issued by income tax department asking them to pay over $2 billion tax on the multi-crore Hutchinson takeover deal.
Digital house arrest is a tactic where cybercriminals confine victims to their homes in order to scam them. The offenders generate fear by making audio or video calls, frequently posing as law enforcement officers using AI-generated voices or video technology.
'Tinkering will not do. Merely staggering spectrum dues comes nowhere near solving the problem,' cautions Rahul Khullar.
The DoT has sought legal opinion on whether to seek a review of the court order or withdraw the penalty.
The attached properties include 14 assets of Tuteja worth Rs 15.82 crore, 115 properties of Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur Mayor and Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar, worth Rs 116.16 crore, properties of Vikash Agarwal alias Subbu worth Rs 1.54 crore and 33 properties of Arvind Singh worth Rs 12.99 crore, it said in a statement.
The department is planning a complete overhaul of the archaic Indian Telegraph Act.
At present 100% FDI is allowed, of which up to 49% investment in a company can be done through the automatic route
Buyers from 19 countries participated and showed interest in sourcing from India.
Since August 2013, FIPB has approved two FDI proposals in the telecom sector.
DoT has issued notice for licence cancellation to Etisalat DB and Idea Cellular on ground of failing to meet roll out obligation.
Telecom honchos Sunil Bharti Mittal, Anil Ambani, Kumar Mangalam Birla and Vittorio Colao are expected to meet IT and Communications Minister Kapil Sibal tomorrow to discuss various issues impacting the sector.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S A Bobde took note of the submissions by a battery of senior lawyers including A M Singhvi and C A Sundaram and said it will list the fresh pleas "sometime in next week" before the same bench which had heard the earlier petition in the high-stake matter.
M Corp Global has applied for six new telecom licences to the department of telecom and dispelled rumours that its company Spice Telecom is up for sale.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Thursday said a strong domestic manufacturing base in electronics and telecommunications will mitigate burden of growing imports for the sector.
...benefiting 350,000 persons. Also, Trai detected and blocked seven million mobile phone connections involved in cyber fraud and suspicious activities.
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.
Sources at the department of telecommunications confirmed that Bharti Airtel has submitted application to bid for airwaves frequencies at pan-India level.
The Department of Telecommunications is planning to give more powers to the telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, in the new telecom policy, including the power to impose financial penalties on the erring telecom service providers.
On the Sensex chart, Bharti Airtel was the biggest loser with nearly 3 per cent drop in its share price. It was followed by IndusInd Bank, Maruti Suzuki, HeroMoto Corp and Tata Steel.
Wannabe telecom operators will take a while to know whether they have passed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's test. But that hasn't stopped them from taking the next step: tying up with infrastructure providers such as tower operators for rolling out their nation-wide operations.
Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) as a source of funding has shrunk to a trickle for the once lucrative telecom sector with foreign investment inflows plunging to $43 million in the April-September period of the current fiscal.
The telecom foray is the second diversification outside its core business of developing residential and commercial real estate -- it is already in the Special Economic Zone space with five zones to be set up across the country.
Telecom operators pay 30 per cent of their revenue as levies like annual licence fee, spectrum charges, contribution to universal service obligation fund and the total burden adds up to 40 per cent along with service tax.
'It's the brazen corruption involving politicians that makes you sit up years after the event,' notes Nivedita Mookerji after reading B K Syngal's Telecom Man.
After a two year run-in with controversies, telecom sector now looks stable and seems back on its feet with initial investment proposal of over Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) received in 2013.
During the proceedings, Spice Telecom's counsel Mukul Rohatgi contended that DoT decided not to allow the licence as the operator had a turnover of only Rs 1,100 crore (Rs 11 billion). The decision was discriminatory, he said. However, Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal declined to pass any interim relief to the firm.
