AIADMK chief Jayalalithaa on Tuesday demanded that Union Communications and IT Minister A Raja resign and face a probe on the 'spectrum allotment scam'.
I hope those who underestimate Rajeev Chandrasekhar will be proved wrong in this fight for Thiruvananthapuram's future, notes Rajeev Srinivasan.
The second largest telecom operator said auction would avoid possible legal disputes and pave the way for licence extensions.
Visitors to Taj Mahal will be able to access the Internet through Wi-Fi hotspots with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited launching the facility on Tuesday.
A two-time Congress Member of Parliament from South Mumbai, the 34-year old Deora said there was scope for improvement in the ministry, while emphasising on maximising telecom penetration in the country.
In a big push to the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme, the government has nearly doubled (increase of 81 per cent) the allocation in five key industry segments from Rs 8,405 crore in the Revised Estimate of FY24 to Rs 15,198 crore in the Interim Budget for FY25. The segments cover over eight PLI schemes, including mobile phones, IT hardware, pharma (PLIs for medical devices, intermediates and pharmaceuticals), food processing, telecom hardware and, auto and auto components. In FY24, DPIIT officials, however, said that the disbursements would be much higher at around Rs 11,000 crore than what has been budgeted for the year.
Telecom Minister A Raja said on Friday that he has met Home Minister P Chidambaram over the issue of import of telecom equipment, especially from China, and hoped the issue would be resolved "in a couple of weeks".
Information and Broadcasting Ministry says no cap will be placed on the number of private satellite channels
Following is the chronology of the events in the 2G spectrum allocation scam in which the prime accused and former Telecom Minister A Raja was on Tuesday granted bail:
Telecom operators will need to shut down 5G services in high-frequency bands in and around airports following restrictions imposed by the Department of Telecom at the request of the civil aviation ministry, according to sources. Based on buffer and safety zone details provided by the aviation ministry, the DoT has asked telecom operators to not install 5G base stations in the 3.3-3.6 Ghz band in the area of 2.1 kilometres from both ends of the runway and 910 meters from the centre line of the runway of Indian airports with immediate effect. "Telecom operators will need to shut down 5G service in the 3.3-3.6 Ghz band only in and around airports based on the order.
Following is the chronology of events in the 2G scam.
The Telecom Ministry, which has sought a legal opinion on cancellation of some telecom licences for failure to meet roll-out deadlines, on Friday said the process of issuing notices over 35 licenses will be completed by March next year.
Reliance Jio Infocomm has moved the Bombay High Court seeking approval for amalgamating its long distance services arm Infotel with itself.
Telecom Ministry has confirmed that more spectrum will be allotted to telecom players as soon as Defence ministry releases this additional spectrum.
Despite its run-in with the Ministry of Corporate Affairs, Mumbai-based GSM telecom service provider Loop Telecom will launch its services in the Tamil Nadu and Orissa circles by next week.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has significantly tightened the noose on mergers among telecom operators within a circle by imposing a three-year lock-in period, besides making it mandatory for them to take prior permission from the ministry.
Chiefs of leading telecom firms, including Sunil Mittal of Bharti Airtel, Anil Ambani of RCom and Vittorio Colao of Vodafone, met Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday and placed their views.
Passing an interim order, the tribunal directed the country's largest telecom operator to pay 50 per cent of the Rs 50 crore penalty imposed by the DoT within a period of two weeks.
The telecom industry has come out in support of new Communication and IT Minister Kapil Sibal for his observation that the sector should not be viewed as source of revenue for the Finance Ministry.
Enthused by 174 per cent growth in services trade this year, India is readying to make an aggressive offer in the WTO negotiations on services.
India's new telecom and IT minister says he wants competition, but says intense rivalries must not hurt corporate balance sheets.
India's overall imports from Taiwan during April-February rose by 34 per cent to $7.5 billion.
The communications ministry is of the view that telecom tariffs in India can fall further to almost half their current levels - with local intra-circle calls for 25 paise and nationwide long distance calls for 50 paise - provided new operators are allowed to start services.
Finding a solution to the spectrum allocation issue will be the main challenge before A Raja, country's new communications minister, who has replaced Dayanadhi Maran.
He said that the telecom ministry is in discussions with finance ministry and GSM operators to work out new charges for additional spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz. The minister also said his ministry is also talking to finance ministry on the issue of relaxing borrowing norms for aspiring 3G spectrum bidders.
In the earlier Press Note 5, these posts could not be occupied by foreigners. However, the chief technology officer will have to be an Indian resident.
Telecom tribunal TDSAT on Thursday reserved judgement on new operator Uninor's petition challenging Telecom Ministry's drive to impose penalty on telcos that did not roll out services within the stipulated period.
Manoj Sinha will retain his current role in the railways.
The Telecom Ministry on Monday said its technical team is testing the solution of interception given by smartphone BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and is expecting a report by end of October.
Earlier, during the day, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal met various operators to discuss the national broadband policy.
There are different prices for spectrum up to contracted limit of 6.2 Mhz and for additional airwaves.
Will come out with a response on the issue shortly.
Sibal, who is also looking after the telecom ministry, claimed that change of telecom policy by the then communication minister Pramod Mahajan in 1999 from the auction model to the revenue share model eventually led to the first come first serve controversy of 2001.
The telecom ministry on Monday started issuing show-cause notices to telecom companies which allegedly suppressed information to bag licences or failed to roll out services in stipulated time.
The pricing of 2G and 3G spectrum continues to haunt telecom companies.
The government on Tuesday decided to make a Presidential Reference to the Supreme Court asking it whether its judgement in the 2G telecom licences case makes auctioning of natural resources across all sectors mandatory in all circumstances.
The department for promotion of industry and internal trade (DPIIT) has suggested to the home ministry to allow limited activity in certain sectors such as heavy electricals and telecom equipment with reasonable safeguards. In a letter to Home Secretary Ajay Kumar Bhalla, the department said that these activities are essential to improve the economic situation and provide liquidity in the hands of the people.
Govt likely to make security clearance mandatory for telcos irrespective of equity holding before giving licences; DoT members to meet today.
In a major development, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has cleared applications of nine telecom aspirants and is close to issuing them Letters of Intent. This will be followed by issuance of universal access service licences and allocation of spectrum.
