In a development that may help jailed former Telecom Minister's A Raja's defence in court, the telecom regulator has informed the CBI that Trai did not recommend the auction of 2G spectrum in 2007, implying that there was no loss to the exchequer in the award of licences.
The Department of Telecommunications is planning to give more powers to the telecom regulator, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, in the new telecom policy, including the power to impose financial penalties on the erring telecom service providers.
The commission has disagreed with another key proposal -- that of allowing operators a deferred payment scheme after the auction.
The petitioner said the companies were increasing the prices just to earn huge profit. Companies like Bharti Airtel had posted an annual profit of more than 90 per cent, the NGO said.
Even as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has started investigating into the complaints of predatory pricing offered by some of the new operators, experts are divided over whether the current scenario actually resembles predatory pricing.
The entire Opposition in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday was one against the hike in telecom rates but failed to elicit any assurance of a rollback from Telecom Minister Arun Shourie.
It's difficult to say whether the CBI will find enough proof against telecom minister A Raja or whether it will get caught in the parcel of half-truths he's been dishing out on how he's just followed the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and the actions of his predecessors.
The company had announced similar pricing for Sri Lanka, where its application was in advanced stages of regulatory clearance.
Responding to queries from the Central Vigilance Commission amid allegations from political parties that Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) was squandered in distribution of spectrum, telecom ministry said it had gone by the book and had done nothing wrong.
Given how the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai's) recommendations on 2G spectrum will hit telecom firms, it's not surprising that telecom stocks have plunged. Of course, the fun and games have only begun since it is up to Telecom Minister A Raja to decide whether to accept the recommendations, which ones to accept, and when to accept.
In Metro circles only Bharti-Mumbai, BPL-Mumbai, Reliance- Mumbai and Tata-Mumbai meet the benchmark.
The 2G judgment and Trai spectrum pricing have led to a policy that makes sense for only one survivor.
A department of telecommunication official said the regulator has already put questions relating to uniform licence fee to the stakeholder in its consultation paper 'Overall Spectrum Management and Review of License Terms and Conditions'.
"The telecom service sector has shown unprecedented growth during 2003-04 mainly driven by intense competition and aggressive pricing," The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said in a statement in New Delhi.
The continued growth in the communications sector, especially mobile subscriber base, is expected to push further the level of energy consumption by networks, Trai said while releasing a consultation paper 'Green Telecommunications'.
Wannabe telecom operators will take a while to know whether they have passed the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's test. But that hasn't stopped them from taking the next step: tying up with infrastructure providers such as tower operators for rolling out their nation-wide operations.
Credible growth in new users was not matched by revenue as the all-India blended Average Revenue Per User per month for GSM remained almost at the same level of Rs 297 as compared with Rs 298 for the previous quarter.The ARPU for postpaid GSM service has shown an increase of 7 per cent from Rs 613 in January-March to Rs 655 in April-June quarter.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is expected to issue the final consultation paper on full unification of telecom services before the end of February.
If accepted, the plan could give the sector Rs 70,000-crore (Rs 700-billion) relief.
According to data released by the telecom regulator, the wireless subscriber base increased from 601.22 million in April to 617.53 million by the end of May 2010, registering a growth of 2.71 per cent.
One reason why mobile subscribers haven't shifted companies is that the service is uniformly bad. But now, with new players coming in, the picture could be different, says Sunil Jain.
Trai contends that the issue does not come under the tribunal's jurisdiction.
With the heat over the 2G telecom spectrum scam rising, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Thursday recommended the cancellation of 34 telecom licences of companies, including Etisalat, Uninor, Loop Telecom and Siestema, due to non-compliance of roll-out obligations.
Move to ensure deals do not hit govt licence fees, revenue share.
The Supreme Court recently quashed a rule that mandated telecom operators to compensate consumers.
Leading service provider Spice Telecom has said consumer must be given competitive choices to choose from and number of telecom players in a circle cannot be an issue.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will announce on Saturday the revised basic telecom tariffs, including monthly rentals, call charges and the much-awaited interconnection charge.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday found the overall level of service quality of basic (landline) telephony services to be 'poor.'
The government on Thursday sought to erase the impression that the hike in tariffs for telecom services has been made to favour cellular and private WLL operators patronised by business and upper segments of society.
Trai and telecom companies are divided in their views on the issue of raising the foreign direct investment (FDI) limit in various media-related activities like cable television, direct-to-home, etc. Trai has proposed across-the-board increase in the FDI limit across cable (49 per cent), DTH (49 per cent), HITS (no existing limit) and satellite radio (no existing limit) to 74 per cent, as allowed in the telecom sector. Companies like Bharti Airtel are supporting this proposal
The operators are willing to accept auction of second generation spectrum beyond what has been contracted. According to them, they are allowed to have spectrum up to 10 Mhz.
Telecom tariffs set to fall significantly across the board as sector regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India announced on Wednesday a cut of more than 37 per cent in the levy paid by private players to BSNL.
Trai chairman attributed predatory price as one of the key reasons for deteriorating condition of telecom industry.
But half the 'profit' should be ploughed back into the company, says Trai.
