India's telecom customer base is slowly inching towards the 10-crore (100 million) mark.
If it happens, this would mean the largest spectrum auction in terms of amount with over 7,000 Mhz going up for sale across eight bands
Top representatives of British telecom giant Vodafone are understood to have met senior officials of department of telecom in New Delhi, presumably to discuss issues related to its interest in acquiring Hutch Essar.
Government is close to finalising the guidelines for new entrants in the telecom sector, with a possibility of existing players getting priority in allocation of radio waves. The department of telecommunication has received about 300 applications from 30 companies for starting telecom services.
Telecom operators may face a penalty of minimum Rs 1000 for each unverified subscriber, Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
UK-based Vodafone Group has ruled out selling its around 5 per cent stake in the holding company of Bharti Airtel in the near future as there is no buyer.
The proposal was put forward by Telecom and IT Minister Kapil Sibal who is on his four-day visit to Japan to attract investments in the Indian ICT sector.
Softening its stand on reduction in access deficit charge, a levy paid by private operators to BSNL for rural telephony, the department of telecom on Tuesday said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India must ensure that by doing so the revenues of
The new rules will be applicable from the second week of November.
TDSAT had stated no amount was payable till resolution of the disputes.
BSNL has launched location based services, including caller tracking facility, in North East India.
Massive relief and rescue operations have been launched in Manipur where a strong 6.8 magnitude earthquake on Monday claimed nine lives, shattered buildings and caused panic.
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.
Client executives and relationship managers -- so far confined to the private sector and especially service providers -- have now made an entry into the tax department, too. Just like the relationship manager at your bank, the 'client executive' will coordinate all the tax requirements of a company, which could range from income tax to central excise and service tax.
It challenged the Delhi High Court's order giving its nod to the Centre's decision holding the 3G roaming pact of the telecom major as illegal.
An apex committee under DoT Secretary R Chandraskehar has been set up to oversee the required policy decisions and institutional framework for an alliance between the two public sector undertakings which have been incurring losses.
Income will be higher as spectrum in 2,100-MHz band will also be auctioned
The Bombay High Court on Thursday stayed a new income tax demand of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) on Vodafone India Services in an alleged transfer-pricing case from 2010-11.
Bharti Airtel has sought quashing of the government's September 28 decision directing the service providers to stop providing intra-circle roaming services.
In view of the foreign investment that would come into Bharti Airtel via the proposed share-swap and cash transaction arrangement, the finance ministry has asked DoT to ascertain more specific contents of the deal and advise the ministry on the same. In its letter, DEA has also said that the transaction would need to adhere to the sectoral cap as per the FDI policy as also specific telecom sector regulations.
The basic telecom operators accused Trai of not following the process of transparent consultation on matters as significant as amending the licence terms of one set of operators, and urged the government not to implement Trai's recommendations.
The department of telecom is looking at various options to allocate 3G spectrum to players, including auction and allotment basis, in which new as well as foreign players would be allowed.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday issued an addendum to its consultation paper on unified license regime and said it was ready to consider all suggestions in this regard.\n\n
The department of telecom has issued letters of intent to BT for national and international long distance services for offering managed services to corporate customers having sites in India.
The controversial report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, which gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the 2G spectrum scam saying he was "misled" by the then Telecom Minister A Raja, was on Tuesday submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
After Finance Minister P Chidambaram's indication the tax department would not act rashly on the issue, the company on Thursday said it was ready to discuss a solution with the government.
International telcos such as Russia's Sistema and Norway's Telenor and foreign investment funds such as KAIF Investments Mauritius and Capital Global Ltd (investors in Loop Telecom) have sent legal notices to the Indian government under the respective Bilateral Investment Promotion & Protection Agreement or Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement.
There has been a huge controversy over the Net neutrality issue.
The department of telecommunications is all set to urge the telecom companies to bring down domestic roaming charges between Re 1 to Rs 2 per minute.
In a statement on Tuesday, DoT said, "1,800 and 900 MHz bands were to be auctioned simultaneously, starting March 11, and the 800 MHz band auction was to commence two days after the conclusion of the auction of the 1,800 and 900 MHz spectrum.
Amid reports of a possible delay in release of spectrum by the defence forces, DoT is going ahead with regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations on auctioning the airwaves with a reserve base price.
'BSNL employee cost is Rs 14,500 crore and we anticipate that around 80,000 should opt for VRS.'
The Bombay high court, in a very significant ruling on Wednesday, dismissed telecom major Vodafone International's petition challenging the Income Tax department's show cause notice for payment of capital gains tax of around $2 billion.
The Department of Telecommunications has mooted a proposal for increasing additional spectrum charges and has also suggested slashing of one-time fixed spectrum charges.
The development comes at a time when growing tension in US-China trade ties is forcing companies to explore alternative manufacturing sites in order to derisk operations.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) have sent separate letters to the department of telecommunications (DoT), asking the government to bear the entire burden of nearly Rs 11,000 crore they need to fork out as one-time payment for additional spectrum.
Miffed at a rise in annual licence fee on Internet service providers, industry body Internet Services Providers Association of India on Thursday said it would approach the Telecom Disputes Settlement Appellate Tribunal, challenging the new fees.
The Delhi HC has asked the department of telecommunications to not take any coercive action until the next hearing of the case.
The government is learnt to be preparing fresh plans to auction telecom spectrum that can fetch around Rs 39,895 crore.
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