MAG was constituted by Department of Electronics and IT in February 2014.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has proposed to simplify the country's telecom landscape. It has suggested one tariff for each licence holder across the country, all-India mobile number portability and doing away with roaming charges.
Recommendations may encourage consolidation.
A panel led by the secretaries of the DEA and the DIPP would conduct a quarterly review on the pending proposals.
DoT has set up a committee to frame the proposed Act, which will have seven members with retired judge Justice Shivraj Patil as its chairman.
Artificial scarcity and lack of clarity on available bandwidth blamed for scam.
Airtel, Vodafone-Idea and other telecom operators may have to pay the government a whopping Rs 1.42 lakh crore following the Supreme Court order last week that sent shock waves through an industry already grappling with billions of dollars in debt and an intense tariff war to retain customers.
In a detailed reply to a missive from the Prime Minister's Office, the DoT has said its recent move to allow use of dual-technology to mobile operators is based on existing policies. According to government sources, the DoT reply, has also rejected the contention of private GSM operators that the department has shown undue favour to any particular company. It also pointed out that its moves are aimed at introducing more competition and fair play in the mobile services market.
The broad idea was endorsed by the DoT's internal panel in its report on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's recommendations last year on spectrum management and other licensing issues.
Operators, including Tata Teleservices, have submitted the compliance report for messenger services to the department of telecommunications.
Tharoor put the blame for the logjam in Parliament on BJP and accused the saffron party of reducing the "temple of democracy to a rubber stamp for its agenda or worse, a notice board to announce its unilateral decisions".
The department of telecommunications has finalised its proposal to use the UID numbers for issuing new connections and detailed guidelines, including the activation procedure, will be issued shortly.
The connectivity will not only improve delivery of government schemes but will also empower people, he said while talking to reporters on the sidelines of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas in New Delhi.
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.
Vodafone, Airtel, Idea provide services without spectrum.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said it had seized "incriminating" documents during searches at 14 places, including former telecom minister A Raja's residence, in connection with its probe into the 2G spectrum scam.
Telecom companies have been desperately waiting for a bailout package from the government after a Supreme Court order put their statutory liabilities at Rs 1.47 lakh crore.
There are different prices for spectrum up to contracted limit of 6.2 Mhz and for additional airwaves.
DoT has issued notice for licence cancellation to Etisalat DB and Idea Cellular on ground of failing to meet roll out obligation.
Bharti Airtel, the country's largest mobile operator, has already joined the global Seamless Alliance to provide in-flight connectivity.
SC also wanted to know why DoT ignored TRAI's recommendations on effective utilization of the spectrum.
Charges were traded thick and fast; enquiries and investigations have been carried out by more than one agency. As a result, one former minister, one political heavyweight, and a handful of businessmen, bureaucrats and executives are in jail.
The government has set a deadline of March 31 for telecom operators to provide an interception solution for BlackBerry enterprise services.
In what could give a big relief to new mobile players, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is unlikely to cancel 53 licences - as recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) - for non-fulfilment of rollout obligations.
A bench of justices G S Singhvi and A G Ganguly asked the CBI to apprise it of their findings on March 15.
Several of the proposals may be part of New Telecom Policy.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), based on advisory from intelligence agencies, has said procurement of equipment from Chinese manufacturers will not be recommended for clearance "unless there is complete supply chain overseeing and auditing to the satisfaction of DoT".
In a big setback to Aditya Birla Group firm Idea Cellular, the Delhi High Court said the six licences of Spice Communications would not be transferred to Idea, since the company did not comply with the licence and merger guidelines. The court also slapped a fine of Rs 1 crore for hiding information.
The government's plan to list state-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will be delayed due to the company's mounting losses and high payout for 3G spectrum.
The documents include the Cabinet note on the policy prepared by DoT and papers related to the decision to clear the policy by the then Congress Cabinet.
The move will require a one-time payment of Rs 4,000-5,000 crore (Rs 40-50 billion), for which DoT would give financial support, a senior official from the latter told Business Standard.
In financial year 2006-07, the exchequer earned Rs 2,090 crore (Rs 20.90 billion) as spectrum charges and Rs 6,360 crore (Rs 63.60 billion) as licence fees.
Reserve Bank of India Governor D Subbarao on Thursday appeared before Parliament's Public Accounts Committee (PAC) probing the 2G spectrum scam to explain his position during his term as the finance secretary.
The telecom tribunal TDSAT on Wednesday asked new operators S Tel and Videocon Teleservices to pay 60 per cent of the penalty within two weeks, imposed on them by the Department of Telecom for failing to meet their roll-out obligations.
In a notification on its website, DoT said all internet and broadband subscribers using Wi-fi connectivity would need to get themselves registered with the respective telecom service providers for completing the centralised authentication procedure within 60 days.
Prasad said country's postal department is 150 years old and needs improvement and the government is trying its best to do the needful.
According to a background note prepared for the Economic Editors conference, the Telecom Ministry has made a provision of adding 1,200 million new telephone connections by 2017.
