One lakh gram panchayats are to be connected by underground Optical Fibre Cable by March this year under the first phase of BharatNet project, Minister P P Chaudhary said while replying to questions on behalf of Minister of State for Communications Manoj Sinha who was not present in the House.
An international team, led by Monash University, has pioneered the innovation which is known as optical Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiplexing, or oOFDM.
The BSE and the NSE have also been asked to provide inputs.
State-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has written to the defence ministry to amend the conditions for floating tenders, including having own manufacturing facility in India, for setting up alternative communications network for defence forces."We have written to the defence ministry for change in tender conditions as some companies have said that the current conditions are very strict," said a senior BSNL official.
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 defence ministry has eased rules for rolling out mobile towers, optical fibre and other telecom infrastructure gears in its area in line with the "Right of Way (RoW)" Rules notified by the Telecom Ministry in 2016. A copy of the new rules uploaded on Gati Shakti Portal on Thursday replaces "shared communication tower and other telecom infrastructure to extend communication network in military station/cantonments" issued in February 2018. As per the new rule, "... any application received for installation of under/overground telecom infrastructure of defence land shall henceforth be processed in accordance with the Indian Telegraph Right of Way Rules 2016 (as amended from time to time) formulated by the Department of Telecommunications" with some additional conditions.
Telecommunications major Reliance Communications will invest $1.5 billion (around Rs 7,000 crore) in Flag Telecom, its under-sea cable subsidiary, over the next three years.
Telecom firms earning foreign exchange on incoming overseas calls, Internet services and rentals from cable networks are not entitled to duty sops under an export promotion scheme, says the government.
Gas Authority of India, PowerGrid and RailTel on Friday joined hands to pool in telecom infrastructure to become India's second largest broadband service provider with plans to venture into STD and ISD services in future.\n\n
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday launched a Rs 100 lakh crore national master plan for multi-modal connectivity that aims to develop infrastructure to reduce logistic costs and boost the economy. PM Gati Shakti targets to cut logistic costs, increase cargo handling capacity and reduce the turnaround time, Modi said at a function to launch the plan. The plan aims to lend more power and speed to projects by connecting all concerned departments on one platform, he said, adding the infrastructure schemes of various ministries and state governments will be designed and executed with a common vision.
Ambani says nation on the cusp of a digital revolution
Close on the heels of acquiring Tyco Global Network for about Rs 600 crore (Rs 6 billion), Tatas-controlled Videsh Sanchar Nigam on Thursday said it was open to acquisitions and takeovers for maintaining high growth momentum.
Resignations of Anil Ambani and four other directors were conveyed to the CoC of RCom in its meeting on November 20 and were unanimously rejected.
Close on the heels of acquiring Tyco Global Network, Tata group chairman Ratan Tata on Wednesday launched a $100 million undersea optical fibre cable linking Singapore to India.
Seeks clarification on a few issues such as enhancement of entry fee and performance bank guarantee from telecom regulator
The company added 95 lakh new 4G subscribers taking its total 4G subscriber base to 7.53 crore inching closer to its peer Bharti Airtel which reported 4G customer base of 7.7 crore.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's call to make this decade a "techade" for India and the push for 5G, semiconductors and transformation through digital services is going to boost the technology sector in the country, industry players said on Monday. Modi, in his speech on the 76th Independence Day, touched upon all-round development of technology in the country, from 5G to push for electronic chips, laying of optical fibre cable (OFC) network across villages and enablement of digital entrepreneurship in villages through Common Services Centres, making the present decade as "techade" for India. Homegrown mobile devices maker Lava International's Chairman and Managing Director Hari Om Rai said electronics and technology sectors create about $4 trillion of revenue.
He made a reference to the clash between Indian and Chinese troops in Ladakh's Galwan Valley in June this year. "What our jawans can do, what the country can do, the world has seen in Ladakh," he said.
The Telecommunications Bill, 2023, which was passed by a voice vote after a short debate, also allows the Centre to take possession of a telecom network in case of any public emergency or in the interest of public safety.
Other than Gujarat, Odisha and West Bengal, call centres would come up in Assam, Manipur, Tripura.
After 5 yrs, firm's offer to set up private satellites for digital push has seen some interest from Isro
Fast paced growth in computer literacy and greater use of data on mobiles will help India's Internet economy grow to $200 billion or 5 per cent of the GDP by 2020.
The world's biggest social network Facebook wants to connect more people to internet in India which accounts for the third largest online user base globally after China and the US but has a very low internet penetration growth rate.
"Those who ruled for decades since Independence believed Dispur was too distant from Delhi. 'Dilli ab door nahi aapke darwaaze par hai' (Delhi is not far now, it stands at your doorstep," he told a massive gathering.
The development comes a day after RCom posted a consolidated loss of Rs 30,142 crore for July-September 2019 due to provisioning for liabilities after the Supreme Court ruling on statutory dues.
India and Saudi Arabia on Monday decided to expedite implementation of the $50 billion West Coast refinery project, and identified energy, defence, semiconductor and space as areas for intensified cooperation during talks between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman Bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud.
Aiming to provide seamless state-of-the-art communication network, RailTel - the telecom arm of railways - will launch Railwire, a high capacity broadband service, in rural and remote areas of the country.
India is ranked below Bhutan and Sri Lanka in terms of broadband penetration, says TRAI.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Wednesday said the International Monetary Fund (IMF) sees India as a "bright spot" in the global economy and as per the World Bank, India is in a better position to deal with the global headwinds than many other countries. This is because of India's strong "macroeconomic fundamentals", Modi said while virtually addressing the inaugural function of the 7th edition of Invest Madhya Pradesh-Global Investors Summit in Indore. In the past eight years, the government has increased the speed of reforms and removed many hurdles in the way of investments.
The project will be rolled out by government-owned company ITI within three years, they said, adding that the contract for its implementation was signed with the telecom entity on Thursday.
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Though the party's pre-poll promises include increasing the focus on technology, this isn't a new idea.
In a breakthrough, scientists in the UK have achieved the "fastest ever" broadband speeds of 1.4 terabits per second - enough to transmit 44 high-definition movies at once.
What will it take to get India's poor broadband penetration to be seen as a problem and not as a condition, thus enabling real, serious e-commerce to take off in India?
Ailing telecom operator Vodafone Idea has flagged the industry's "unsustainable financial duress" in its latest annual report and hoped that the government would provide the necessary support to address "all structural issues" faced by the sector. In the chairman's letter to shareholders, Himanshu Kapania cited persistent challenges in the operating environment, amid "unsustainable pricing" and "hyper-competition" during FY21. Kapania expressed hope that government will support efforts to generate reasonable returns on massive investments.
This would be the first visit to India as Google CEO.
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