The members could include National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, the secretary, Department of Telecommunications, and the secretary, Ministry of Defence.
Indian operators offering BlackBerry services, top executives of Canadian telco Research in Motion (RIM), the company that owns the brand, security agencies and officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are expected to meet on March 14 to answer the concerns of security agencies in a bid to prevent having BlackBerry services terminated after the March-end deadline.
Canadian communications major Research In Motion (RIM), owners of the BlackBerry brand of mobile phones, has assured the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that it would sort out the BlackBerry tangle by initiating discussions between security agencies of Canada and India. The move comes in response to a government notice directing BlackBerry service providers to stop services by December 31, 2007.
The draft guidelines prepared by the Telecom Engineering Centre and under consideration of the department of telecommunication have suggested, among other things, that children below 16 years should be discouraged from using cellular phones.
Even as Left parties have demanded a review of the tax concessions provided to SEZs, the DoT has sought extension of excise duty exemptions to industrial units set up in telecom-specific SEZs.
Foreign operators may fail to provide quality 3G services, unlike their Indian counterparts, as the Department of Telecommunications is offering spectrum in tranches of 5 MHz, which is insufficient for starting operations.
The opening of bids has been deferred to September 22 from September 3 as decided earlier. The pre-bid conference, which was to be held on August 27, has also been re-scheduled to September 8. However, according to the revised schedule issued by the communications ministry, there will be no delay in the date of identifying the agency. The finalisation of the bids will be completed by September 30 as announced earlier by Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura.
The US lawmakers, describing themselves as "longtime friends of India", wrote in the letter that "more than six months after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government unilaterally revoked the autonomy of Jammu and Kashmir, the government continues to block most internet in the region".
The roll-out of 3G or third-generation mobile telephony services, scheduled for this year-end, may be delayed after the Ministry of Finance strongly criticised the Department of Telecommunications for announcing 3G guidelines without consulting it. In a communication with the DoT earlier this week, the finance ministry said the move was inappropriate and contrary to a 2003 cabinet decision.
The department of telecommunication had earlier said a CDMA operator had written a letter to the government seeking auction of additional spectrum against the current subscriber-led allocation.
Indian consumers will have their tryst with 3G telecom services in the next six months, with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announcing that it is issuing state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) spectrum to roll out all-India services.
Solicitor General of India Goolam E Vahanvati appearing for the Department of Telecommunication on Thursday informed the sectoral tribunal TDSAT that on January 10 the government had issued 121 LoIs, of which 120 have already complied with its terms and conditions.
DoT identifies more spectrum, to expand auctions from earlier estimate of five in each service area.
The drama over the third-generation, or 3G, telecom services policy took a new twist today with a Delhi High Court Bench headed by the Chief Justice A P Shah directing the Department of Telecommunications to file an affidavit explaining why it cannot auction all the available blocks of spectrum in the upcoming auction of 3G spectrum.
The Vigilance Commission has asked DoT to justify its decisions regarding spectrum allocation to GSM operators.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has decided to allocate one block of 3G spectrum in each service area except Delhi and Mumbai to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) at a price equivalent to the highest bid in the respective service areas.
The Department of Telecommunications has decided to hike four-fold the reserve price for broadband wireless access services in the country.
DoT opposes the auction of 2G spectrum as anti-consumer and warns PMO that such a move can result in monopolising of mobile services in India.
As part of measures to curb unsolicited commercial calls, the government asked telemarketing companies on Wednesday to register themselves with telecom service providers and with the department of telecommunication.
The move was necessitated by growing number of crimes especially against women.
Nivedita Mookerji explains why a timely rollout of 5G may not be easy in India.
Upping the ante in the ongoing spectrum war, Reliance Communications chairman Anil Ambani has shot off a missive to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), accusing GSM operators of having cornered spectrum under the valuable 900 MHz.
Currently, ISPs pay only Re 1 as annual licence fee while Internet telecom service providers, or telecom operators providing Internet services, pay 6 per cent of their annual gross revenue as licence fee.
Even as India's external affairs ministry has reportedly assured Canada that the Department of Telecommunications is trying to resolve the issue of a potential threat to India's security posed by BlackBerry phones, Research in Motion, the makers of the phones, said it is committed to addressing all aspects of the issue.
The view follows a detailed review of the matter by DoT since March this year, after Dayanidhi Maran, then communications minister, asked officials to provide details about the possibility of the Tata-owned VSNL being allowed to retain the land. This latest recommendation, made in September, comes despite the fact that the Cabinet Committee of Economic Affairs had, in December 2005, approved hiving off the land bank into a separate company.
The department of telecommunications is planning to seek details from four operators - Bharti-Airtel, Hutchison-Essar, Tata Teleservices Ltd and Reliance Communications - on the fulfillment of rollout obligations under the mobile telephony licence.
Says cap breached on account of Singh, Ghosh stakes.
Real estate firm Parsvnath Developers' quest for a mobile licence seems to have hit a roadblock at the Department of Telecom (DoT). Parsvnath, which is one of the seven realty firms in the fray for mobile licences, hasn't mentioned the business of "telecommunications" in its memorandum of association (MoA).
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.
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.
It was discovered that state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited was given additional spectrum of up to 10 MHz for GSM technology services in over 16 circles even as private competitors have been waiting to be allotted spectrum by the DoT.
There are about 140 new proposals from various companies seeking universal access service licenses to provide services across the country, the world's fastest-growing telecom market.
The total number of arrests by the CBI has risen to six -- four PNB officials, a retired employee of the bank, and an authorsied signatory of Nirav Modi's company -- after Monday's development.
The Department of Telecommunications, which has been mandated to simplify the multifarious levies, would introduce the new regime in phases.
DoT is also planning to carry out verification on operators' premises to check the technologies they employ.
You telephone bills will become cheaper if the finance minister P Chidambaram heeds to the telecom operators' demand for a reduction in levies.
Given the military's requirement for watertight cyber and communications security, L&T will establish a Security Operations Centre which will deal with security threats.
Defence officials contend that the services do not use spectrum for 'commercial purposes' and therefore do not need to pay for it.
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