Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Authority had on December 12 refused to stay the government's process of awarding new licences and allocating airwaves to mobile firms, a decision which existing GSM players say would hurt them Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular are the major GSM players in Cellular Operators Association of India, but it is learnt that there is no consensus within the lobby group over moving the high court.
Cellular Operator Association of India, a lobby group of GSM operators, on Tuesday said it is not against competition in the industry and welcomes "open and healthy competition".
Private GSM operators on Thursday got a reprieve from Supreme Court, which has stayed Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's notices asking them to refund excess charges levied from customers on calls made to the networks of PSU telecom firms.
The Cellular Operators Association of India has older players like Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular as its core members. Sanjay Kapoor, CEO of Bharti Airtel, was elected chairman of COAI last week.
The cellular phone companies using the WLL-CDMA technology will increase their subscriber base by 86.6 per cent in 2004-05 as against the expected growth of 40 per cent in GSM customers, according to a study.
From spending a little less than three hours on making voice calls, Indians are spending well over 5 hours. So, while people make more calls, they are spending less than ever, reports Romita Majumdar.
The staff association of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has decided to defer its indefinite strike till September 1.
The government has prohibited imports of all kind of mobile handsets with fake or duplicate unique identity numbers, a move that will help security agencies in tracking callers using different SIM cards.
Newer telecom operators and dual technology entities are opposing the department of telecommunications (DoT)'s decision to ask the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to give its view on whether the price of spectrum being offered in the coming 2G auction should be valid for 10 years instead of 20 years.
The Cellular Operators Association of India has suggested that the government, in allocating telecom licence, consider applicants with experience and impose a five-year lock-in period under which promoters cannot sell their equity.
The economic slowdown may have raised the spectre of job losses in most industries, but telecom is a notable exception. Far from cutting back, telecom companies expect to hire over 16,000 people, 15 to 20 per cent more than last year, to meet the unprecedented expansion in subscriber numbers, according to the Cellular Operators Association of India, the association for GSM service providers.
Confident over second wave of revolution in mobile telephony coming from rural India, Cellular Operators Association of India said on Monday monthly additions would touch 10-million mark by December this year.
Get Ahead reader Arun Iyer lists out three quick facts smartphone buyers must know before choosing the mobile they desire.
The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notices to telecom operator Bharti Airtel, GSM lobby COAI and private banks ICICI bank and American Express over unsolicited calls to mobile phones.
The average revenue per user (ARPU) of the country's four new GSM operators who got licences in 2008 - Uninor, S-Tel, Videocon and Etisalat DB - was between Rs 8.50 and Rs 39 in the January-March quarter.
T V Ramachandran, former director-general of the Cellular Operators' Association of India, iterates his wish that the differences in technologies would blur.
Private GSM mobile players' lobby Cellular Operators Association of India launched on Wednesday another attack on the government, warning that any proposal to issue Letters of Intent to all prospective licencees will seriously hamper investors' confidence. According to COAI, the entry fee of Rs 1,651 crore (Rs 16.51 billion) for a pan-India licence, as fixed by the department of telecommunication is for spectrum bundled with license.
Communications Minister A Raja met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday and briefed him about the developments in the telecom sector including recent policy decision like introduction of number portability and releasing spectrum for third generation (3G) mobile services. The meeting lasted for about 25 minutes, official sources confirmed but did not give details.
Seeks 100% depreciation on hardware and peripherals, exemption of customs duty on goods imported by ISP, seeks measures to increase penetration.
Its says reconsider lower reserve price, uniform usage charges; GSM players to bear the brunt.
Tata Docomo, the mobility and business services brand of Tata Teleservices, on Tuesday launched a mobile advertising application 'GET' that allows users to get free voice minutes for viewing ads on their handsets.
The issue of spectrum allocation has become murkier, with the Association of United Service Providers of India (Auspi) -- the CDMA operators' body -- slamming the move by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to allocate additional spectrum to existing private GSM operators.
Birla group firm Idea Cellular Ltd and Modis-owned Spice Telecom on Friday dared the government to allocate spectrum to those mobile operators who submitted applications after them.
Differences within the Cellular Operators Association of India have come out in the open again with Spice Telecom Chairman B K Modi supporting the government's move, announced on Monday, to launch "number portability" in four big cities and auction 3G spectrum for incumbents and new players.
Mobile operators are divided on the consensus reached in the government to increase the base price for 3G auctioning to Rs 4,040 crore. Earlier, the base price for auctioning ranged from as low as Rs 1,020 crore to Rs 2,040 crore.
Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and Association of Unified Telcom Service Providers of India (AUSPI) have opposed the proposal to compensate consumers.
Union leaders say that Raja only assured the members that a fresh tender for the second phase of the contract would be issued soon, but was unwilling to commit on other aspects of their demand.
BSNL, struggling to cut the delay in its mobile expansion plan, has sought legal views before finalising its response to the queries of Telecom Minister A Raja.
It is not clear, however, whether the two players are considering a majority stake or would be content as investors with 26 per cent.
The high mobile telephony penetration in India's major metros and cities is expected to lead to a dramatic churn in the space
The reduction in mobile roaming rates is certainly great news for subscribers. But this happiness may not last long .
GSM-based mobile operators are gearing up to launch a key component of web-based value added service - instant messaging - in the next three weeks, where a subscriber can send and receive real time messages.
Bharti Airtel is the largest mobile phone operator in the country.
Tatas' suggestion for auction stirs up hornet's nest.
India's 140 million mobile subscribers make missed calls to convey a pre-agreed message.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances