The report has revealed that BSNL, which contributed around 98 per cent to the financial irregularities, failed to pay a government loan amounting to Rs 7,500 crore (Rs 75 billion) in spite of having adequate cash reserves in short-term deposits with other banks during the year 2005-06 and 2006-07.
Mobile subscribers from May 3 will be able to port their numbers anywhere in the country.
'The recent incident in the US has no bearing in India.' 'We are not aware of any request from the US to India about 5G.'
A senior department of telecommunication official said the estimated figure for 2009-10 is Rs 10,000 crore and the actual figures could be a little higher.
The inter-ministerial battle over spectrum for 3G telecom services has intensified, with the department of telecommunications (DoT) rejecting a claim by the ministry of defence (MoD) that it has not accounted for 10 MHz of spectrum given to DoT at the end of October in the information memorandum (IM). This document provides potential private bidders with details on the auction process slated for January 14, 2010.
Instead of only government departments and state-owned undertakings, the CAG can now audit private companies, too.
Department of telecommunication and intelligence agencies have long been demanding access to data on Blackberry phones, which is available only to the owners of the handset. RIM executives had met senior DoT officials recently.
The step comes in the wake of the reports that proper verification is not being done while providing such pre-paid mobile connections by the service providers/vendors.
The BSNL board had last year approved a plan under which the government would divest 10 per cent of its shares to the public. But opposition from the unions backed by the Left parties -- which supported the United Progressive Alliance in the last Parliament -- had stalled the process. That opposition has abated, now that the Left is no longer a factor in the current ruling alliance.
The sources said that all records pertaining to the allocation of spectrum to new players in January 2008 will be taken to see if there were irregularities in the process.
Solicitor General of India Goolam Vahanvati has said no further allotment of spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz should be made to telecom operators till the report of the committee on its pricing and allocation is received.If the opinion is acted upon, it would affect companies like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Communications, Idea Cellular and Aircel, which have applied for extra spectrum in other circles.
The defence ministry has decided to release only that 3G spectrum that is to be auctioned and that too in phases. In fact, the armed forces have not released spectrum already in use as envisaged in their agreement with department of telecommunication.
The Ministry of Corporate Affairs has asked the Department of Telecommunications to reconsider its decision to issue Mumbai-based Loop Telecom an all-India mobile services licence, suggesting the company had links with Essar Group that violate restrictions on telecom cross-holdings by groups.
The Standing Committee on Information Technology has decided to have briefing on allocating spectrum for the existing services and introduction of 3G services from department of telecommunication, an official communication said. Mobile operators have been demanding additional spectrum from the Government for 2G services, where they have more subscribers.
Going by the guidelines issued in August 2007, the ISP licence was valid for 15 years and the one-time entry fee was Rs 20 lakh (Rs 2 million) and Rs 10 lakh (Rs 1 million) for Category-A and category-B circles, respectively. The new amendments will come into effect immediately.
Suggests ban in 20 states; operators fear price surge, European monopoly.
The committee had recommended a complete junking of the existing subscriber-based criterion for additional spectrum allocation and wanted that spectrum beyond 4.4 Mhz should be auctioned.
Given the ongoing economic turmoil, the DEA has raised concerns that the government may not be able to get the right value for its stake. TCIL has been seeking an exit route for over two years. It first wanted to get the company listed so that it could exit. However, the proposal was turned down by Bharti Airtel, which has 70 per cent stake.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has selected NYSE-listed Syniverse Technologies as one of the two companies to implement mobile number portability (MNP) services in the country.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) seems to be in a state of confusion on deciding the number of slots of 3G spectrum to be auctioned. It is now in favour of auctioning only two blocks and immediately assigning the spectrum to the successful winners.
Government needs to take a call on the DoT-MoD faceoff....
Trai is working on regulations and on the charges for mobile number portability service. The DoT issued guidelines for MNP implementation in August last year and in March next, two US companies -- Syniverse and Telcordia -- were selected as technology providers for the implementation.
The government, which has received flak for delaying the number portability process, said on Thursday that there is no delay in implementation of number portability.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has awarded international long distance (ILD) and national long distance (NLD) licences to global telecom major Cable & Wireless.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Thursday came out with a notification under which a UASL (Universal Access Service Licence) holder will have a lock-in period of three years or till the fulfilment of rollout obligations, whichever is earlier, before promoters can sell their equity stake.
The commission sent back the proposal of unrestricted internet telephony, seeking more clarity on how it would function, highly placed source said.
The Department of Telecommunications is scheduled to auction 3G spectrum starting January 14.
The department of telecommunication will soon write to companies, including Idea Cellular and Aircel to start landline operations.
However, portability services, which were earlier expected to be launched by the end of the year in the four metros -- Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai -- as well as Tamil Nadu, have now been delayed till February or March 2009 (the DoT has said that it will start operations six months after the licence is granted).
The Budget estimate of 2009-10 includes a sum of Rs 35,000 crore as expected revenue from auction of 3G spectrum, finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in Budget papers.
During the first six months (up to the second quarter of the current fiscal) of 2009-10, the department of telecommunication has already collected Rs 4,112.30 crore (Rs 41.12 billion), minister of state for telecom and IT Gurudas Kamat said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
Auctions for spectrum for 3G or third-generation telecom services could be delayed from an already rescheduled date of January 30 after the Department of Telecommunications sought legal opinion on whether it should send the finance ministry's suggestion on doubling the reserve price back to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India for its endorsement.
Will scrap bid if it falls below government's revenue expectations.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee met telecom minister A Raja and defence minister A K Antony on Monday in an effort to resolve the issue, highly placed sources said, adding that there was no consensus on the spectrum slots to be auctioned.
A department of telecommunication official said the deferment has been made after taking into consideration the concern of the prospective applicant companies during the pre-bid conference on December 23. A prospective domestic 3G applicant, however, said the deferment might have been due to absence of foreign telecom operators in the pre-bid conference, thus forcing the government to give some more time to them.
The Department of Telecommunications' Wireless Planning and Coordination arm has moved a note to issue start-up spectrum of 4.4 MHz to four leading service providers offering GSM technology, whose applications have been pending from December 2006.
Concerned at the large amounts of money blocked on account of litigation, the government is set to amend the law to ensure that at least a certain amount of disputed demand is deposited by the telecom companies before the case is admitted by TDSAT.
After seeking the surrender of spectrum, Reliance Communications (RCom) chairman Anil Ambani is seeking installation of frequency-efficient technologies such as synchronised network and FemtoCells that can be used at no additional cost. Ambani listed seven technologies to improve mobile network efficiency in the country.
However, this rule will not be applicable to companies holding licences for a period of three years, even if they acquire licences in other circles to expand their operations, according to sources close to the development. The suggestion was made by the DoT to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, which will decide on making it a regulation, along with other suggestions on the lock-in period put forward by the licensor.
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