The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Thursday launched a channel selector application which will facilitate consumers to view their TV subscription and choose the channels of their interest while removing the unwanted ones.
In a major setback to Bharti Group which offers telecom services under AirTel brand, the Supreme Court has turned down its plea seeking refund of Rs 135 crore (Rs 1.35 billion) for surrendering five basic licences.
Telecom service providers have got 15 days more to finalise their tariffs under the revised IUC regime as Trai on Tuesday postponed its implementation in view of some of the operators seeking clarification on various issues.
The auction of radio waves used for mobile services saw a muted opening on Tuesday, with five rounds attracting bids worth about Rs 11,000 crore from telecom companies. The government has put over 10,500 Mhz spectrum in eight frequency bands -- 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1,800 MHz, 2,100 MHz, 2,300 MHz, 2,500 MHz, 3,300 MHz and 26 GHz, valued at Rs 96,238 crore at base price, for auction.
Speaking at the sidelines of the launch of its pre-paid 3G mobile service, MTNL's CMD R S P Sinha said: "In the first year of operations, we want between 200,000 and 300,000 customers for our 3G services." Interestingly, after about six months of operations, MTNL has only 400 subscribers for its 3G service, which has been branded 'Jadoo'.
The government on Thursday made it clear that BlackBerry services may be banned if its maker, Research-in-Motion, fails to provide a monitoring solution in the next five days.
The Cabinet is believed to have asked the Department of Telecom to examine imposing a Swachch Bharat cess on spectrum charges paid annually by service providers.
Spice Telecom, one of the cellular service providers in Punjab, on Friday announced a 'special ISD offer' for its subscribers in the state, reducing international calling rates from Rs 16 to Rs 3.99 per minute.
Overall market reaction to the Budget was neutral. Investors absorbed the changes to the tax rates (positive for salaried class) and capital gains taxes (CGTs, negative due to the removal of indexation and increases. Other proposals largely pertain to supporting rural development, buybacks taxed as dividends, Custom duty changes that impact multiple sectors, higher outlays for clean energy, etc. There's some moderation in the growth of capex outlay across defence, fer
The number of base stations installed by Indian wireless operators is inadequate to provide high-quality services to the growing number of mobile subscribers, said a research.
Amid mounting pressure from Home Ministry on the BlackBerry smartphone maker to share data interception technology, Telecom Ministry said the service could be monitored with the help of internet operators.
DoT officials, under fear of allegation of their conniving with telecom operators for lowering penalty, directly impose the maximum penalty that can be levied on service providers.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is set to secure a $2 billion deal from Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) to roll out its 4G and 5G services across the country. However, the final approvals from the publicly-owned telco may take a couple of months, sources in the know said. As part of the deal, TCS will develop 4G core and Radio Access Network (RAN) technology for BSNL's telecom services.
The company is also in advanced stages of negotiations to rope in the kingdom's largest telecom service provider, Bhutan Telecom, as partner.
Concerned over the series of attacks on mobile phone towers in the valley, the Centre also issued an advisory to the state government.
Telecom operators are not opposed to over-the-top service providers like Skype, Viber, WhatsApp but looking to work in synergy with them, Bharti Enterprises Vice Chairman Akhil Gupta said on Wednesday.
After subdued earnings in the first half amid global headwinds, India Inc is taking a cautious approach on their capital expenditure (capex) for the second half of the financial year ending March 2025, according to management commentary. Minutes from the October monetary policy meeting show the Reserve Bank of India's (RBI's) optimism about private investments picking up.
Blackberry services have become a bone of contention between government and telecom service providers, who are questioning the rationale behind making them respondent to the concern of security agencies.
Punjab-based telecom operator HFCL on Wednesday became the first service provider to offer uniform call rates across all telecom networks and announced that all calls from its service Connect would be local calls.
The absence of a transparent telecom regulatory environment not only makes life difficult for service providers, but also impacts investors' confidence in the sector, a senior Bharti Airtel official said.
British telecom giant Vodafone is in discussions to sell its about 5 per cent stake in telecom infrastructure company Indus Towers to Bharti Airtel, according to industry sources. The deal, if it goes through, could be worth over Rs 3,300 crore, they said. When contacted, Vodafone refused to comment on the matter. An e-mail sent to Bharti Airtel did not elicit any response.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) decision to stop issuing new licences for district-level operators or category 'C' players has effectively shut the door on smaller Internet service providers (ISPs) interested in setting up shop. Those who have moved on to category 'B' or state-level operations, too, are feeling the heat as they have to compete with the likes of Reliance, Bharti Airtel, BSNL, VSNL and Sify.
Infosys already works with a communication services provider major in Western Europe in the digital TV space. The company has a solution called modular content accelerator which serves as an interface between stakeholders of consumer marketing and IT. The solution provides an operator the means to efficiently manage content catalogue, bundled offers and pricing, apart from providing interactive services through multi-media content storefront.
The petitioner had sought enforcement of existing laws on call drops.
The directive by the department of telecommunication has also made it mandatory for equipment vendors to transfer technology to Indian manufacturers within three years of selling machines to any operator.
Ending the long wait over next generation telecom services, MTNL on Friday said it will commercially launch its 3G services in the national capital within 10 days.
Amidst complaints of misleading advertising campaigns, some of the leading telecom service providers have been sent notices by Trai to explain within three days as to why they were not complying with the guidelines on tariff publications.
Further, pan-India readiness is required for the proper implementation of call routing, according to the service providers who had met DoT officials recently. The operators also mentioned that due to delay in completion of various activities, it would be difficult to meet the timelines for MNP implementation.
The department of telecommunications (DoT) has pulled up mobile service providers for offering the National Anthem as a ringback tone.In a notice to all telecom service providers, the department said this was a breach of the Prevention of Insults to National Honour Act, 1971, and executive instructions relating to the anthem.
Telecom companies are eyeing a piece of the market share where data usage generates a higher amount of revenue, once 3G services are launched later this year.
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.
Telecom regulator TRAI on Thursday said that operators will have to provide an optional tariff of per second call along with other packages or plans.
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.
Call drops may end as govt allows telecom spectrum trading
Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea said the Railways should not be permitted to offer commercial services like Wi-fi and voice and video communication.
The government on Thursday cleared changes to the current channel down-linking guidelines to allow broadcasters to provide content to telecom service providers for Internet Protocol TV.
Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani on Thursday said his oil-to-telecom-and-retail conglomerate is not seeking short-term profit but is in the business of creating wealth for the nation. Speaking at the company's annual shareholder meeting, he said all businesses of Reliance Industries Ltd continue to be key drivers of the Indian economy and have become a success story. "We are not in the business of pursuing short-term profit and hoarding wealth. "We are in the business of creating wealth for India," he said.
Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said that there were 31 complaints of call drops against the company in 2015
Etisalat, which is mulling an Indian foray, has since started discussions with several telecom companies including the Videocon Group's Datacom Solutions and Essar-controlled Loop Telecom for equity. Ravi Sharma, CEO of Datacom confirmed that Etilasat was one of the companies to which the company was talking but declined to offer details. Loop Telecom declined to comment.
© 2026 Rediff.com - Advertise with us - Disclaimer - Privacy Policy - Sitemap - Feedback - About us - Terms of use - Grievances