Department of Telecommunications has reportedly blocked the popular website.
After BlackBerry, the government has included a whole host of services, including video chats offered by telecom players, Nokia's push email service and Skype, into the ambit of security issues.
The Central Bureau of Investigation has registered a case against three private cellular companies and former officials of the telecom department for alleged irregularities in the grant of additional 2G Spectrum and causing a loss of Rs 508 crore during the period 2001-2007.
Instructions of the personal secretary to the minister were taken as instructions of the minister himself.
Spectrum qualifies for the infrastructure criteria, say ministry officials.
There has been a quantum jump in the number of complaints of corruption received by the Central Vigilance Commission last year as against those in 2011.
It is learnt that the defence ministry is refusing to let go of its 100 MHz spectrum, which was allotted earlier. In that case, the department of telecommunications (DoT) will be left with only 175 MW of 5G spectrum of the total 300 MHz.
The proposal may provide relief to the tune of Rs 9,000 crore to service providers.
Conversion of debt of the stressed telecom player Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) into equity could be an option to emerge out of the crisis, lenders led by State Bank of India (SBI) have suggested to Department of Telecommunications (DoT). DoT had called senior bank officials on Friday to discuss the stress in the telecom sector arising out of the Supreme Court order last month on the adjusted gross revenue (AGR)-related dues payable by telecom majors, including Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel, sources said. The top court has given a time period of 10 years to telecom service providers struggling to pay Rs 93,520 crore of AGR-related dues to clear their outstanding amount to the government.
Modi called for ensuring maintenance of all essential services such as power, telecommunications, health and drinking and their immediate restoration in the event of damages caused to them.
The proposal gains significance because the merger plan was given a quiet burial under former telecom minister A Raja.
The department is planning a complete overhaul of the archaic Indian Telegraph Act.
The move is significant as it would extend the power of CAG -- set up to audit central and state government departments as well as PSUs -- to private sector companies.
The mobile phone manufacturers are planning to plead with the government that the new rules suggested by the DoT could leave them with no option but to stop introducing new phone models in the country if the stringent rules are eventually approved.
Earlier, during the day, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal met various operators to discuss the national broadband policy.
According to an order issued by the Central Board of Direct Taxes, the department will share 'bulk information', starting from Permanent Account Number (PAN) to the taxpayer's name and all the individual data that it captures like father's name, gender, date of birth, photograph and signature or thumb impression.
The Department of Telecom on Tuesday approved applications of telecom companies -- Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and MTNL -- for conducting 5G trials but none of them will be using technologies of Chinese entities. The list of telecom gear makers approved for trials include Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, C-DOT and Reliance Jio's indigenously developed technologies.
DoT officials said instructions have been issued to Idea and Vodafone to provide the requisite information to IB at the earliest.
Top DoT sources said the department was unlikely to go for cancellation of licences, as many of the new operators already had made large investments and had a reasonable presence across the country.
VIL pegs dues at Rs 21,533 cr, less than half of DoT estimate. During a meeting with Vodafone Group CEO Nick Read, Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad made it clear that the government is against a monopoly in the telecom sector, and wants Vodafone Idea to survive and remain invested in India.
Penalty must act as a deterrent. If it is too low, it could encourage the regulated entities to lap up penalty instead of complying with the norms, suggests Tamal Bandyopadhyay.
Bharti recorded $5 billion liability for past-due AGR fees, but is still completing its self-assessment to determine the final amount.
Sources at the department of telecommunications confirmed that Bharti Airtel has submitted application to bid for airwaves frequencies at pan-India level.
Senior official from the department of telecommunication said the deck has been cleared and the department will handover the spectrum to the operators on Wednesday.
Tata Communications on Monday said it had not received any communication from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on the issue of demerger of the company's surplus land.
The department of telecommunications (DoT) has pulled up mobile service providers for offering the National Anthem as a ringback tone.In a notice to all telecom service providers, the department said this was a breach of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, and executive instructions relating to the anthem.
CBI made the submission in its reply opposing the bail plea of former Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura who was arrested with ex-Telecom Minister A Raja on February 2 for his alleged role in the 2G spectrum allocation scam.
DoT, has decided that it will not cancel the GSM licences of dual-technology companies.
According to a top DoT official, there have been random checks at different factories of different handset makers and respective teams have submitted their reports.
The DoT had last week sent a detailed reply to all the issues raised by the CAG.
Says inordinate delay on this and other issues raised by firm earlier are impacting investor confidence.
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 company has already made payments for the spectrum according to rules.
The department of telecommunications, in the draft universal licence guidelines to be signed with telcos which recently won spectrum in the 1800 MHz auction of November, has included a new clause for foreign companies.
With hopes of raising funds through an initial public offer (IPO) or selling a stake to a strategic investor fading due to stiff opposition from the unions, the government is working on a proposal for a private placement of shares for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), India's fifth-largest telecom company,
Though the government has been pushing for exports of high-value manufactured goods across major markets in place of raw materials and input goods, India's top exports to China remain in the raw materials category.
The decision had been communicated to the department of telecommunications, a senior official of the department told Business Standard.
Telecom sector has seen phenomenal growth over the past decade or so, says the prime minister.
If the apex court decides on a 15-year repayment tenure, it would pose a grave challenge for the debt ridden VIL.
The telecom and banking departments along with the railways accounted for the maximum number of public grievances among the various arms of the government in the last three years.
