The launch of Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd last September, particularly the tariff war it has unleashed on its competitors, has deepened the crisis facing India's telecom sector. One offshoot of this is the major drop in earnings reported by industry leaders Bharti Airtel and Idea Cellular with each passing quarter. Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com tells the story in numbers.
Departments of electronics, excise, I-T launch probe into Rs 251 smartphones
India has average monthly spends of $4 per user; it is over $20 in other Asian markets
Private cellular operators have locked horns with state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd over sharing of the revenue earned from roaming subscribers within the country as well as those coming from abroad.
Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Tuesday said the roaming charges of private cellular operators are "very high" and the industry must look into it to bring them down.
Cellular industry is on the brink of financial crisis with the accumulated losses at over Rs 7,100 crore.
As much as Rs 8,000 crore worth of mobile phones in this segment - out of a total of Rs 15,000 crore - come into the country through the grey market. The government imposed the duty on these phones primarily to encourage domestic production but the strategy has failed as the bulk of high end mobile phones are currently imported.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has directed the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) to make a presentation detailing the pros and cons of the controversial Indian 5G standard, also known as 5Gi, which the government has been pushing for. The move comes after serious differences emerged among telcos with regard to the technology's efficacy and implementation.
The petitioner had sought enforcement of existing laws on call drops.
Members of COAI, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone-Essar, Idea Cellular and others met in New Delhi and decided to go ahead with filing of the affidavit in TDSAT against the Telecom Engineering Centre's report. COAI has also questioned the government's move to allocate spectrum to two telecom PSUs -- BSNL and MTNL -- saying they have been given frequency out of turn as many other players have been waiting to get spectrum for months and even years now.
Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal on Wednesday sought the views of cellular operators regarding the alleged loss to their revenues on account of limited mobility services.
The government on Tuesday started allocating GSM spectrum to new telecom players, commencing with the Tamil Nadu circle including Chennai, in a move that would infuse more competition in the mobile telephony space.Five new players -- Videocon-promoted Datacom, Idea Cellular, realty major Unitech, Swan Telecom and Loop Telecom -- have been given start-up 4.4 MHz GSM spectrum in Tamil Nadu circle.
The Supreme Court on Monday posted the interim application of COAI for final hearing in the first week of December, but refused to order status quo on service-specific licensing regime as sought by the cellular operators.
The attack reflects the open schism in the association, in which TTSL is a new member with other Unified Access Service Licence holders such as Loop Telecom , Etilasat DB, Uninor and STel. The older, established, operators are represented by Bharti, Vodafone Essar and Idea Cellular.
Indian cellular companies added 13.7 lakh (1.37 million) customers in January this year, taking its subscriber base to 2.33 crore (23.3 million) even as CDMA based mobile companies added another 218,000 customers during the period in reference.
The move will help telcos, including Reliance Jio, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular
Mobile TV essentially uses DVB-H (Digital Video Broadcast to Hand-held devices) technology for broadcasting content on mobile handsets, or any DVB-H enabled devices such as palmtops, gaming devices or laptops. However, other technology options for Mobile TV are also available such as 3G, MediaFLO, T-DMB, and S-DMB.
The Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal on Monday adjourned its hearing on the limited mobility issue, and will hear the appeal on March 17.
The Union health ministry on Friday said while there is no evidence to suggest that existing vaccines do not work on the Omicron variant of SARS-CoV-2, some of the mutations reported may decrease the efficacy of the jabs.
The government will have to make substantial payments, as well as forego revenues in FY'23, if it wants to work on the survival of Vodafone Idea because it will have to extend the same incentives to the entire telecom sector. According to estimates, the industry has to spend around Rs 21,000-Rs 25,000 crore for spectrum which it bought on a deferred payment basis. Vodafone Idea has asked for a moratorium for another year (FY23). If granted, the government will have foregone the instalment payout for a third year in a row as it has already provided a moratorium for two years, giving telcos Rs 42,000 crore worth of relief.
Samsung makes the largest number of non-4G feature phones in India
For re-verification through Aadhaar-based eKYC process, the operator will send a verification code to the mobile number of the subscriber.
Cellular operators have sought intervention by TRAI to restrain Reliance Infocomm from offering predatory tariffs in its new unlimited talktime plans claiming this was non-compliance of the regulator's order.
Under these rules, telecom gear makers have to share their source codes and get their equipment tested by third-party labs accredited to the government.
The B.1.617 variant of SARS-CoV2, also being called a 'double mutant' or the 'Indian strain', has been found prevalent largely in Maharashtra and Delhi that have been severely hit by a devastating second wave of the pandemic.
Rejecting the cellular operators' demand for withdrawal of its consultation paper on the unified licensing regime, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday said the "question of withdrawing the consultation paper does not arise".
With a sharp spurt in growth, the GSM industry has witnessed the highest ever subscriber additions in September at 4.4 million, taking the cellular subscriber base to 91 million.
The new platform allows subscribers to be on instant messaging even if they are overseas and roaming in one of the member-operator's service.
The telecom regulator in the second ultimatum to GSM operators, including Bharti, Vodafone and BSNL, has given August 21 as the deadline to give interconnections to the RCom GSM network. Trai has cited it as a licencing condition to provide interconnection among the service provider implying if a mobile operator does not give interconnection to another based on mutual commercial agreement, it is a violation of license condition attracting penalty.
The private cellular operators have asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to consider fixing the annual licence fee at 6 per cent across all segments, as part of full unification of telecom services.
Concerned over the series of attacks on mobile phone towers in the valley, the Centre also issued an advisory to the state government.
However, the government is readying a relief package and it could include a cut in the licence fee to 5 per cent, two years' moratorium on paying spectrum charges with interest, and referring the GST tax refund issue to the Council.
Reliance Jio accuses COAI of malafide intention.
Cellular operators have accused Reliance Infocomm of offering predatory prices in Chennai and rest of Tamil Nadu, and sought immediate intervention of the telecom regulator.
The Cellular Operators Association of India on Monday clarified it had no intention of 'suing' the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on its recent move to release a consultation paper on unified licensing regime.
Cellular Operators Association of India on Tuesday said the department of telecom's decision to treat fixed wireless service as limited mobile service would benefit 60 million cell users.
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