He has been appointed as the TRAI chief for three years or till he attains the age of 65.
Digital house arrest is a tactic where cybercriminals confine victims to their homes in order to scam them. The offenders generate fear by making audio or video calls, frequently posing as law enforcement officers using AI-generated voices or video technology.
In the second major change in a year, Trai had capped individual channel subscription at Rs 12 per month, down from the earlier Rs 19, and capped channel bundle discount to 33 per cent, among other moves.
Reliance Jio maintained the top position in the 4G speed chart with a 20.9 megabit per second (Mbps) average download rate in September, while Vodafone Idea topped in the upload segment with 7.2 Mbps data speed, as per telecom regulator Trai. Reliance Jio's 4G network speed increased by about 15 per cent in September while its competitors Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (VIL) speed jumped by about 85 per cent and 60 per cent month-on-month to 11.9 Mbps and 14.4 Mbps, respectively, according to data published by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
Issuing its recommendations on Net neutrality, Trai has also suggested a multi-stakeholder body comprising telecom and Internet service providers, content providers, civil society organisation and consumer representatives for monitoring and investigation of violations.
The government is not seeking to change the 2012 Supreme Court judgment that backed auction as the preferred mode of allocating telecom spectrum except for narrowly defined sectors such as satellite communication and defence where the auction is not feasible, a top source said on Wednesday.
The regulator has asked the DTH operator to file a status report over implementation of the new tariff regime
Launched in March, it triggers re-verification of suspected fraudulent numbers. Failing re-verification, the number will be disconnected.
Telecom regulator TRAI on Tuesday suspended the newly-implemented norms for commercial text messages for one week, following major disruptions in SMS and OTP deliveries for banking, payment, and other transactions.
All distribution platforms can move their subscribers to the new framework by February 1.
In its consultation paper Trai addressed three key points including the bundling of channels under bouquets, rampant discounting within bouquets, and the lack of consumer choice.
Reiterating its position, TRAI, which oversees both the telecom and television sectors in the country, said the amendments suggested on January 1 had been done to correct "distortions" in the market and address pricing issues.
Trai's regulatory intervention was supposed to stimulate the market, but the latest order seems quite on the contrary, asks Nivedita Mookerji.
Trai's move is seen as a relief for the debt ridden sector and the industry body COAI expects that continuing with six paise mobile call termination charge will not have any impact on consumers as operators have already absorbed this charge in their recently increased mobile call and data rates.
Trai had asked the Attorney General for views on Jio's free voice and data offering till March 2017, that rivals have termed predatory.
This is not the first time Trai has been accused of bias; and, in my memory, never have such charges of bias been leveled against any other regulatory body, says Rahul Khullar.
Vodafone Idea's (Vi's) subscriber loss reduced to a seven-month low in March, and alongside the company added 1.1 million broadband users after two months of net loss -- two things analysts have noted as key trends that need to be monitored. While Vi has been losing customers for more than two and a half years now, the churn reduced to below a million after five straight months in March, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data has shown. "Jio's softer than usual subscriber growth in March, and VIL's slowing subscriber market share loss are key trends to keep an eye on going forward," global investment banking and financial services major UBS said in an analyst note.
The new proposals will lead to complex processes and huge costs for telecom service providers, without any substantial benefits: COAI
TRAI said that Internet service providers would not be allowed to discriminate on pricing of data access for different web services.
Vagela could not have reached this position if Narendra Modi, who'd known him from his chief minister days, had not backed the choice.
According to the quality of service rules, not more than 2 per cent of total calls in a telecom circle on a network should automatically get disconnected.
Work at Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) office on Wednesday came to standstill after Municipal Corporation of Delhi sealed its building.
Also said if some govt bodies have already been allowed to enter business, the Central Govt should provide appropriate exit route.
Reliance Jio has accused old operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, of "illegally" masquerading wire-line numbers as mobile numbers for "undue enrichment".
Jio has accused incumbent telecom operators for not providing the required number of equipment to connect its mobile network with theirs
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India around mid of this month decided to continue with forbearance in tariff regime that gives freedom to decide on call and other services rates.
The regulatory system in India has become a farce, and needs to be either scrapped, or thoroughly revamped. The way the law has been formulated, Trai is a toothless tiger -- it works well if the ministry chooses to be gentlemanly and takes the recommendations seriously; if the ministry chooses to assert its authority, there's little Trai can do, says Sunil Jain.
Just ahead of its mega FPO opening to public investors, Vodafone Idea (VIL) has announced closure of its anchor book allocation, raising about Rs 5,400 crore from marquee global as well as domestic investors, according to a statutory filing by the telco. This could be the third-largest anchor book after One 97 Communications and Life Insurance Corporation (LIC). One 97 Communications and LIC had raised Rs 8,235 crore and Rs 5,627 crore in the anchor round, respectively.
Decisions of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) have been under scrutiny for a while.
Leading broadcasters Zee-Turner and Set Discovery have challenged in TDSAT sectoral regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's guidelines on pricing of cable TV charges in non-conditional access system areas. Trai regulation directs them to provide their channels on a 'la carte' basis.
The Cabinet last month approved rules for mega-spectrum auction in which airwaves worth Rs 5.66 lakh crore will be put up for sale.
There is no plan to direct over the top (OTT) communications players who generate large amounts of traffic to give a 'fair and proportionate' share of their revenues to telecom network operators, the communications ministry has said. A senior official allayed any such apprehension by saying: "We have no proposal of this kind or anything like this which we are working on. "There is no fresh reference on this matter to the regulator (Trai)," he said. The ministry's view is significant as telecom network operators have been escalating this issue since July when Trai issued a consultation paper called 'Regulatory Mechanism Over OTT Communication Services and Selective Banning of OTT Services'.
Last week, the Supreme Court refused to grant interim relief to the operators.
Tata has 6.13 million followers on Twitter and has tweeted only 119 times since he joined the microblogging platform in April 2011
Dependence on advertising remains absolute, with about 90 per cent of revenues coming from it.
While the market for satellite broadband currently is small, the potential is large as an estimated 30 per cent of the country does not have reliable terrestrial broadband services.
US telecom major Qualcomm on Wednesday said the recommendations of TRAI on spectrum allocation for 3G service are fair and forward looking but termed the existing criteria of allocating spectrum linked to subscriber base as "negative approach".
Telecom operators stressed that differential pricing for data is necessary for growth.
India may be 15th among the top 25 Artificial Intelligence nations, but it has the 'the greatest upward potential' according to research by Tufts University's business school, the Fletcher School. At the top is the US, followed by China, fighting for global leadership in AI followed by the UK, Japan, and Germany. In the 15th spot, India is ahead of Brazil, Argentina, Indonesia, Mexico, Turkey, Indonesia and Thailand.
To improve quality of telecom services and make tariff plans easier to understand, telecom regulator TRAI will switch to a quarterly audit of Quality of Service, instead of annually now.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Investor Information - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances