The DoT has sought legal opinion on whether to seek a review of the court order or withdraw the penalty.
Payment apps PhonePe and Paytm have helped citizens avert potential financial frauds worth Rs 200 crore by using the fraud risk indicator platform developed by the Department of Telecom, a senior Walmart group official said on Wednesday.
Essar group promoters Ravi Ruia and Anshuman Ruia and Loop Telecom promoters I P Khaitan and Kiran Khaitan, besides Essar group director (Strategy and Planning) Vikash Saraf were directed by the court to furnish personal bail bond of Rs 500,000 each and two sureities of like amount.
The Department of Telecom has worked out a one-time spectrum charge of over Rs 2,060 crore to be levied from operators for the period they remained in business after their licences were cancelled in February last year, sources said.
The telco, being one of the first operators in the circle, has a strong base of high-value subscribers; Airtel could leverage that for its top-end services.
Lenders, with Rs 600-cr exposure to telco, want it to sell properties to repay loans.
Agreement between Bharti Airtel and Loop Mobile, which offers mobile services in Mumbai, expired on October 31
The Supreme Court in February, 2012 had quashed 122 2G licences.
This is the first merger in the country's crowded telecoms market in nearly six years.
Loop Mobile has debt of Rs 400 crore (Rs 4 billion), which is likely to be included in final deal size.
The Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Wednesday issued show causes notices for alleged foreign exchange violations of Rs 3,805 crore (Rs 38.05 billion) to telecom firms and other entities as part of its investigation into the 2G spectrum allocation case.
The current termination charge is 10 paisa a minute.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) began making submissions on Monday on its appeal before the Delhi high court challenging the acquittal of accused persons, including former telecom minister A Raja, and firms in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case in December 2017.
Mobile phone service providers alone jointly reported gross revenue of Rs 55,164.18 crore (RS 551.64 billion).
The CBI contended before the Delhi high court on Tuesday that there were glaring illegalities in the trial court judgment that acquitted former telecom minister A Raja and others in the 2G spectrum allocation scam case.
A special court on Thursday acquitted all accused in the 2G spectrum allocation scam cases. The scam relates to the granting of 2G spectrum licence allocations in 2007-08 which caused, according to a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, a loss of Rs 1.76 lakh crore. Here is a detailed timeline of how the case came to light and how it has progressed over the years:
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, on October 15, gave its recommendation on spectrum auction for premium 900 Mhz band and 1800 Mhz band that are presently being used for 2G GSM mobile services by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea Cellular and Reliance Communications.
The fear of another scam pushed the government into a rather long period of so-called 'policy paralysis'. To play it safe, the price of spectrum in all subsequent auctions was benchmarked to the high 3G rates, says Surajeet Das Gupta.
Reliance Jio Infocomm (RJIL) has written to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) stating that a recent complaint against it by Bharti Airtel is a deliberate, malicious attempt at defaming RJIL's consumer-friendly tariff. RJIL has also asked the regulator to warn Airtel against 'making such frivolous complaints in the future'. The move is in response to Airtel recently requesting Trai to bring content aired through broadband under the regulatory fold and keep a check against discriminatory bundling tactics.
The court said a 'scam was created when there was none'.
After a two year run-in with controversies, telecom sector now looks stable and seems back on its feet with initial investment proposal of over Rs 11,000 crore (Rs 110 billion) received in 2013.
Telecom regulator TRAI has imposed cumulative penalty of Rs 50 lakh on nine mobile operators for failing to meet quality of service benchmarks in the second quarter ended June 2013, official sources said.
The telephone subscriber base was 996.49 million at the end of March.
Sources say companies will have to keep the market share of merged entities below 50% in all circles
Telecom operator Vodafone has been the top gainer of customers through mobile number portability facility while Reliance Communications is the biggest loser.
The auction started off with the 36th round this morning. At the end of 35 rounds on Friday, bids worth around Rs 54,600 crore had been received by the government.
He allegedly advanced the cut-off date to favour accused firms in allocation of 2G licences.
Demand for 1,800-MHz weak but govt secures a combined Rs 42k cr on Day-1
Regulator has suggested a lower reserve price even in service areas where spectrum was sold in November 2012.
A liberalised spectrum allows operators to use any technology to deliver services like 3G and 4G.
According to a study, the change in frequency for transmitting mobile signals could cost the telcos over Rs 1 lakh crore (Rs 1 trillion) cumulatively.
The Department of Telecom has put on block around 385 MHz of radiowaves in the 1800 MHz band, and 46 MHz in the 900 MHz band.
Three telecom giants, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam, Videsh Sanchar Nigam and Telecommunications Consultants India Ltd have formed a joint venture and got licence to offer basic telephony.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio Infocomm and five other telecom firms will battle it out at the spectrum auction tomorrow, from which the government expects to garner at least Rs 11,300 crore (Rs 113 billion).
Its says reconsider lower reserve price, uniform usage charges; GSM players to bear the brunt.
The uniform SUC, if implemented as per recommendations made by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, will provide relief for mobile operators such as Airtel, Vodafone and Idea, but will increase rates for broadband wireless access spectrum holders like RJIL.
The judgment in the 2G case is a huge, huge, indictment of the criminal investigation and justice system, says R Jagannathan.
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