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.
Industry body COAI plans to approach DoT citing Supreme Court's 2012 order
The Supreme Court on Friday deferred till Monday (November 10) the hearing on the appeals filed by Cellular Operators' Association of India against a telecom tribunal verdict allowing WLL.
The fall in GSM-based cellular subscribers growth continued with just 979,000 additions in May 2004, at 2.81 crore (28.1 million), with the Bharti Group cornering over one-fourth of the market at 73.43 lakh (7.34 million) customers.
The CDMA and GSM operators in the country are at loggerheads once again, this time over the implementation of mobile number portability.
The Cellular Operators Association of India said it would not take any legal step on the issue, unlike what it had said earlier.
The mission - unveiled by Communications Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad -- will enable strengthening of technological infrastructure for education, health, entrepreneurship and development.
Contending that the licence terms for cellular operators are far more lenient, the basic operators asked Trai to do a complete analysis of parameters such as entry fee, roll-out obligation and spectrum to arrive at a level playing field condition.
The Cellular Operators Association of India has provisioned for a massive increase in its budget towards the legal expenses to deal with the cases against WLL services.
The apex body of CDMA operators, has shot off a letter to the telecom ministry alleging that the GSM operators were given spectrum "way beyond their licences".
The Supreme Court on Wednesday adjourned the hearing on wireless in local loop matter to January 13, 2004, giving time to the cellular operators to reply to basic operators' response.
Jio has accused incumbent telecom operators for not providing the required number of equipment to connect its mobile network with theirs
Ambani termed COAI's appeal to the telecom tribunal against the government granting RCom dual-use technology (CDMA and GSM) as "unnecessary and unwarranted". RCom, the country's largest provider of CDMA mobile services, recently received permission to start GSM services under its existing licence for which it paid a fee of Rs 1,651 crore (Rs 16.51 billion).
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 average revenue per user of private cellular operators have dropped by 17 per cent in 2003-04 from Rs 523 in the first quarter to Rs 432 in the fourth quarter mainly due to a continuous fall in tariffs.
Kolkata has emerged as one of the key concerns for the telecom companies providing GSM services.
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.
Mobile phone firms are willing to let go of inactive subscribers because holding on to them doesn't help in any way in the new order.
The move comes a few days after billionaire businessman Elon Musk tweeted that his Starlink internet services would be available in India as soon as it gets regulatory approvals next year. Musk's Starlink, which plans to have a constellation of 40,000 low-orbit satellites, recently started offering high-speed internet in the US as part of its beta launch phase.
Cellular Operators Association of India, the association for GSM operators, has taken legal opinion which clearly states that the government cannot go in for auctioning of 2G spectrum and deprive them of additional spectrum.
Contrary to the assertion of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India that the reduction in access deficit charge on incoming international calls would put a check on the grey market, Cellular Operators Association of India on Monday said it would m
Delhi High Court says it can do so under the TRAI Act, rejects petitions filed by telecom associations.
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.
GSM operators in the country have added 14.49 million new users in the month of March, taking the total GSM subscriber base to 569.55 million, an industry body said.
Telecom tribunal on Monday fixed April 2 as the date for hearing of petitions by Association of Basic Telecom Operators, Cellular Operators Association of India, Data Access and Bharti Telesonic against telecom regulator's IUC regime.
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.
According to the latest data released by Cellular Operators' Association of India, the total GSM subscriber base rose to 257,85 million, up from 249.35 million in November 2008, a growth of about 3.25 per cent in December.
Scientists associated with Indian SARS-CoV-2 Consortium on Genomics (INSACOG), the government panel that conducts research on different variants of the coronavirus, said they were surprised at noted virologist Shahid Jameel's decision to quit the group and wondered whether he was disillusioned with the government's handling of the pandemic.
The Telecom Dispute Settlement Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) upholds government's decision on dual technology for RCom.
High spectrum charges would lead to rise in mobile services rates and adversely impact government's Digital India initiative by impeding telecom network expansion.
With the profitability of telecom operators declining due to "low tariffs and high costs", GSM industry body COAI Chairman Himanshu Kampania has said the mobile sector cannot sustain future investments with present low margins.
A bench comprising justices K S Radhakrishnan and Vikramajit Sen said CAG can carry out the audit to examine whether the companies are giving proper share of their revenue to the government.
COAI has argued that in India the government has been working to keep telecom networks secure, with reviews of the security policy and the insertion of specific clauses into the licences to prevent any risk to network security.
The GSM operators have asked the government to remove Permanent Account Number (PAN) as a requirement to acquire mobile connection to increase tele-density in the rural areas and also sought rationalisation of multiple taxes and duties in the sector.
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