But says more than 5 MHz can be auctioned in 9 circles
Telecom tribunal on Monday fixed April 2 as the date for hearing of petitions by Association of Basic Telecom Operators, Cellular Operators Association of India, Data Access and Bharti Telesonic against telecom regulator's IUC regime.
The telecom regulator had suggested imposition of a price on operators for holding spectrum beyond the contracted limit of 6.2MHz.
"I understand that DoT (Department of Telecom) should be able to take a decision in about 15-days. We (TRAI) should be able to announce a date soon...I don't think it will take long," Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Chairman J S Sarma told reporters.
In an interim order on Monday, the Supreme Court directed that Direct-to-Home (DTH) operators may charge no more than 42 per cent of the rates paid by cable operators for TV channels.
The regulator has also agreed to the one-nation, one-licence proposal, which will make roaming free across the country. But it wants to decide the modalities of the issue.
DPDP Act (2023) gives individuals the right to decide how their personal data is collected and used. For many businesses, this means reworking longstanding data practices, notes Ravi Duvvuru.
The telecom regulator had on Monday said that for the first unsolicited communication, a service provider would have to pay a penalty of up to Rs 5,000, which could go up to Rs 20,000 for each subsequent call.
'He is trying to divert attention. The media is creating unnecessary hype. When Raja says he was doing things at PMO's behest it does not necessarily mean that the prime minister is involved. Dr Manmohan Singh is a person who needs to be revered than merely praised,' says Constitutional expert Fali S Nariman.
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).
It has mandated all operators to set up a complaint centre.
Every telecom service provider, who does not comply with the provisions of the regulations will be fined up to Rs 5,000 for the first instance. The operator could be fined up to Rs 20,000 every time the offence is repeated, Trai said in a release on Monday.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday invited all stakeholders in the telecom industry to give suggestions on issues relating to blocking the International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) for lost or stolen mobile handsets.
Regulator puts price at average of 1.65 times 3G cost; Sibal's approval needed for rollout.
The recommendations on the subject will be sent in due course to the government, according to an internal communication of DoT
Private telecom operators on Friday raised serious concerns over BSNL's non-compliance with regard to implementation of interconnect user charge saying they (BSNL) were completely violating Trai's regulations.
While the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has approved the access of TV on mobiles, service providers still cannot stream live TV channels on to the handset due to spectrum allocation from the Ministry of Information and Broadcast. However, since the regulations do not allow a direct transmission of TV channels, service providers as well as content providers have started using a technology called Unicast which provides content to end-user on a one-on-one basis.
The eight-member committee set up to look into new subscriber-base norms for spectrum allocation has left it to the Department of Telecom to consider either the recommendations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or Telecom Engineering Centre, DoT's technical wing.
According to data released by the telecom regulator, the wireless subscriber base increased from 635.51 million in June to 652.42 million by the end of July, 2010, registering a growth of 2.66 per cent.
Trai member A K Sawhney had been acting as chairman since Nripendra Mishra retired on March 22 this year. Before joining Trai, Sarma was member of the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal and is a well-known expert in the field, the regulator said.
The department of telecom (DoT) on Friday announced a set of rules for granting telecom licences and allocating spectrum that is likely to impact GSM-technology service providers like Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Essar, among others.
The content providers -- TV channels, FM Radio stations, e-commerce companies and credit card majors -- have blamed the service providers and mobile value-added services (VAS) operators for the problem.
Analysts expect that Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications (RCom) and Idea Cellular will post over 50 per cent annual growth in revenues (year-on-year) and more than 10 per cent sequential growth (over the previous quarter). Bharti continues to lead in the subscriber addition race (2.1 million in August).
This means the regulator can bring rates under regulation once again. Currently, the rates are determined by market forces.
The telecom regulator has been in the hot seat for many decisions that have fundamentally changed the country's telecom business.
Meanwhile, new players like Etisalat, Unitech Wireless, Loop, STel and Sistema Shyam Teleservices -- who got the spectrum (radio waves) in 2008 -- paid Rs 80.78 crore (Rs 807.8 million) in spectrum charges and licence fees to the government.
Mobile tariffs are currently under forbearance, which means these are determined by market forces.
The Internet is too important to let a few private telecom players decide what the rules will be for consumers, says Rajeev Chandrasekhar, independent member of Parliament who was one of the key petitioners seeking the scrapping of Section 66A of the Information Technology Act.
Internet services are likely to get more expensive.
Currently, ISPs pay only Re 1 as annual licence fee while Internet telecom service providers, or telecom operators providing Internet services, pay 6 per cent of their annual gross revenue as licence fee.
At present, consumers are offered a number of innovative services through Intelligent Network deployed by telecom service providers in their network.
As per the Trai recommendations, the STD service providers would be connected to ISPs through public internet for the purpose and the two service providers would have mutual agreement for the same. The move will permit calls from personal computers to fixed line and mobile phones. Currently, a voice call can travel between two computers but not from a mobile or a fixed phone.
After the failure of the Do-not-call registry, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India now plans to try out Do-call registry to curb unnecessary telemarketing calls.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) expects to finalise the norms for mergers and acquisitions and spectrum sharing by the end of June. It also plans to approve the National Telecom Policy (NTP), 2012, by the end of July.
Value-added services (VAS) and mobile-content providers may soon come under a licensing regime. Security concerns regarding VAS have come to the forefront in the ongoing debate over security issues surrounding Blackberry services in India.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Wednesday told operators Etisalat DB and STel to continue offering services till June 2, the limit specified by the Supreme Court for expiry of their licences.
