The government on Friday said telecom companies would be heard before a decision is taken on telecom regulator TRAI's recommendations on spectrum related issues, including levying a one-time charge for excess air waves.
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.
The framework for new licences will be ready by end of this financial year.
Shares of Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) rose nearly 1 per cent on Tuesday, hitting an intraday high of Rs 2,986.05 per share, after most brokerages reacted positively to the company's March quarter (Q4FY24) results. The bullish outlook stems from Reliance Jio's potential tariff hikes, given the competitive landscape, along with slow but steady improvement in the oil-to-chemical (O2C) vertical.
The bulk of this money will, however, be spent on buying imported equipment, mainly from Europe and China.
In a move that could pave the way for open auction of the 2G spectrum released from 122 cancelled operators, a draft Cabinet note prepared by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has recommended the spectrum price be discovered through an auction involving "existing players and new parties".
Now BSNL customers will be able to make calls using the company's mobile app 'Wings' to any phone number in the country.
The government believes firms which are subject to China's laws could be forced to hand over information to Beijing's security services.
Shareholders have given approval to the appointment of Ambani scions Akash, Isha and Anant on board of Reliance Industries, the company said in a stock exchange filing.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Wednesday said it had seized "incriminating" documents during searches at 14 places, including former telecom minister A Raja's residence, in connection with its probe into the 2G spectrum scam.
The attached properties include 14 assets of Tuteja worth Rs 15.82 crore, 115 properties of Anwar Dhebar, the elder brother of Raipur Mayor and Congress leader Aijaz Dhebar, worth Rs 116.16 crore, properties of Vikash Agarwal alias Subbu worth Rs 1.54 crore and 33 properties of Arvind Singh worth Rs 12.99 crore, it said in a statement.
The Telecom Commission (TC) on Saturday put the onus of deciding the contentious issue of the base price for auction of 1,800 MHz of 2G band spectrum on the Empowered Group of Ministers (EGoM) headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee.
National Knowledge Commission Chairman Sam Pitroda made a strong pitch on Thursday for India getting into telecom manufacturing in a big way to address the demand.
Despite getting lukewarm response from the earlier two auctions, the government on Monday said it is confident of meeting the revenue target of Rs 40,000 crore (Rs 400 billion) from spectrum sale this fiscal.
The IAS officer was later taken into custody under the provisions of the Prevention of Money Laundering Act and is expected to be produced before a magistrate seeking his remand, the sources said.
Concerned over mobile signals crossing the international border, the department of telecom is planning to take action against telecom operators
'The expeditious enactment of labour codes and strategic measures to bridge the skills jobs gap are critical.'
Bharti Airtel, India's number one cellular operator on Tuesday received the nod from Bangladesh's telecom regulator to purchase 70 per cent stake in Warid Telecom and to invest $300 million in the company.
Hit hard by the rising number of illegal telecom exchanges and unauthenticated mobile customer base, Department of Telecom is considering amending the Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 to include stringent penalties of up to Rs 5 crore.
The government announced a Rs 1000-crore (Rs 10-billion) project to convert wireless operations of defence services on Optical Fibre Cable, a move that is estimated to release 45 MHz of spectrum.
The government has ruled out banning Blackberry services in India. This was stated by the telecom secretary in New Delhi on Friday.Security agencies had said that they should have access to data that are being encrypted by services like BlackBerry on mobile phones and then decrypted when the phone reaches its destination. The government had cited security concerns as it could not monitor the content on RIM's servers, which were located in Canada and other foreign locations.
Communication Minister A Raja on Thursday asked the Telecom Commission, which is responsible for policy formulation, licensing and wireless spectrum management among other things, to review the annual spectrum charges that service providers pay as licence fee.
Telecom Minister A Raja has been indicted by the CAG in the 2G spectrum scam, which resulted in a loss of about Rs 1,70,000 crore.
The commission sent back the proposal of unrestricted internet telephony, seeking more clarity on how it would function, highly placed source said.
Subscriber churn costs operators heavily, retailers make Rs 7.7k cr a year.
The Telecom Engineering Centre, the technical wing of the DoT, has submitted its much-awaited report on spectrum allocation to the Member (Technology) of the Telecom Commission. The report, which is the last hope for GSM-based players for additional spectrum allocation, is believed to have gone along with the TRAI's recommendation of increasing subscriber base for awarding additional radio waves.
It means a CDMA players like Reliance can also operate GSM services and get the required spectrum from the government within the same licence. Earlier, they were allowed spectrum either for CDMA or for GSM within the licence. However, now they have to pay an amount equal to the entry fee of a UASL licence (over Rs 1,680 crore for a pan-India licence) to get the spectrum as recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The Planning Commission on Tuesday emphasised the need for setting up "effective" regulatory institutions in civil aviation and ports sectors even as it said the functioning of the existing regulators in power and telecom was "uneven."
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended up 62 per cent reduction in base price of premium 2G spectrum and up to 37 per cent in case of radiowaves freed from the cancellation of 122 licences, compared to the amount fixed for previous auction.
The waiver, decided recently by the Telecom Commission, a wing of the DoT, is worth around Rs 200 crore (Rs 2 billion) per year. The commission also decided to reduce the levy towards the Universal Service Obligation Fund from the present 5 per cent to 3 per cent of the adjusted gross revenue.
Pitroda is also considered the pioneer of the Indian telecom revolution, more than his reputation as a venture capitalist, inventor, technocrat and social thinker.
The government plans to remove the definition of broadcasting services altogether from the bill to help reduce confusion among stakeholders.
Reliance Industries Ltd on Friday reported a 9 per cent rise in its December quarter net profit as a planned maintenance-induced weakness in oil business earnings was offset by stability in retail and telecom verticals. The oil-to-retail-to-telecom conglomerate's consolidated net profit of Rs 17,265 crore, or Rs 25.52 per share, in October-December - the third quarter of the current 2023-24 fiscal - was 9.3 per cent higher than Rs 15,792 crore, or Rs 23.19 a share, earning a year back, according to a company statement. Quarter-on-quarter, the profit was lower when compared to Rs 17,394 crore earnings in the preceding three months ended September 30.
The proposed reduction in license fee for long distance services (STD and ISD) providers would impact the current levels of government revenues directly by about Rs 500 crore (Rs 5 billion) in a full fiscal.
Internet major Google has appointed former joint secretary at Niti Aayog Archana Gulati as head of public policy in India. A Google spokesperson confirmed the appointment. Messages sent to Gulati elicited no immediate reply. Gulati was looking after digital communications policy matters at the government think tank and took voluntary retirement in April last year.
The government has set a total revenue target of Rs 40,874.5 crore (Rs 408.74 billion) this fiscal from spectrum, including auction amount, one-time spectrum charge and annual regular licence fee.
Narendra Modi is India's most successful prime minister and the greatest global leader of current generation, billionaire Mukesh Ambani said on Wednesday as he flaunted his group Reliance Industries' Gujarati heritage and its over USD 150 billion (Rs 12 lakh crore) investment in last 10 years.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday defended Home Minister P Chidamabaram in the Supreme Court in the 2G scam by blaming the Department of Telecommunication for "jumping the gun" in spectrum allocation.
It aims to attract $100 billion investment and create 4 million jobs in the sector by 2022.
