But says more than 5 MHz can be auctioned in 9 circles
Modi has appointed P K Sinha, who superannuated as cabinet secretary on Friday, as Officer on Special Duty (OSD) in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO), he said.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved revision in guidelines for providing direct to home (DTH) services in the country under which licenses would be issued for 20 years, Union minister Prakash Javadekar said. The Union Cabinet has also approved 100 per cent FDI in the DTH broadcasting services sector, Javadekar said, adding that while the commerce ministry had spoken of 100 per cent FDI in the DTH sector, the guidelines of the information and broadcasting ministry needed to be changed.
Telecom complaints against other players were below 500 in the first half of 2016.
It emerges that Vi has probably offered good data quality despite being short on spectrum and infrastructure due to its stretched finances. Did the two companies that merged face the heat due to price wars? Probably. Did the government's tough stance in demanding its "due" share of telecom revenues hurt the company? Certainly!
Telecom operators can look forward to offering all telecom and broadcasting services, including cable TV, DTH, STD, ISD and radio, through a single licence by paying a one-time fee of Rs 107 crore (Rs 1.07 billion).
Denial of interconnection "appears to be with ulterior motive to stifle competition and is anti consumer", Trai said.
The TRAI has released a consultation paper on community radio, which aims at obtaining structured inputs on issues like eligibility, licensing process, funding, and regulation and monitoring for the segment.
'We have filed our draft red herring prospectus for a floating IPO for a net offer size of 86.6 million shares.'
The call drop rate should not be more than 2 per cent and for worst affected cells it should not be more than 3 per cent.
Analysts at rating agency ICRA say the debt level of the telecom companies is very high and the ecosystem for the premium band is not in place.
A call drop is a voice call, which after being successfully established, is interrupted.
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.
For the PMO this is urgent as the Digital India framework would depend on how the telecom companies perform. It is also linked to the proposed auction of 5G airwaves.
The regulator has suggested that all spectrum will be auctioned as opposed to the current policy of bundling it with a 2G licence. A beginning has been made with the auctioning of spectrum for 3G services, which is due later this year. Trai has also suggested that licences for any telecom service should be auctioned as opposed to the current policy, where it is given on a first-come-first-served basis. The new policy is expected to be ready by the end of December this year.
It is learnt that the defence ministry is refusing to let go of its 100 MHz spectrum, which was allotted earlier. In that case, the department of telecommunications (DoT) will be left with only 175 MW of 5G spectrum of the total 300 MHz.
Telecom operators Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea on Tuesday submitted applications to participate in the Rs 3.92 lakh crore spectrum auction scheduled to start from March 1, according to official sources. This round of auction will be held for 2,251.25 Megahertz (MHz) in seven frequency bands -- 700 Mhz, 800 Mhz, 900 Mhz, 1800 Mhz 2100 Mhz, 2300 Mhz and 2500 Mhz -- at a cumulative base price of Rs 3.92 lakh crore. "Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea have submitted applications (for the spectrum auction)," an official source told PTI.
Far from benefitting consumers, the new rules on roaming charges have opened another front in the battle between large and small operators.
Customers of Vodafone, Idea Cellular, Tata Teleservices and BSNL in some circles have reported maximum discrepancies in their phone bills, according to a latest report by telecom regulator TRAI.
India's telecoms regulator must guard against overly aggressive price-cutting in the nation's fast-growing telephone industry, a key policy maker said on Thursday.\n\n
The regulator may ask broadcasters to abide by the tribunal's pricing formula.
Move to ensure deals do not hit govt licence fees, revenue share.
It would be perfectly possible for a rogue customer to disconnect a call and then claim compensation.
Indicted in the draft JPC report, former Telecom Minister A Raja on Monday hit back maintaining that "every major decision", including entry fee and non auction of spectrum, was taken after consulting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and P Chidambaram and Pranab Mukherjee.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will come out with new tariff for long distance calls and also fix interconnection charges between two points for basic telephone services this month, its chairman M S Verma said on Friday.
Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) CEO Ravinder Takkar did some plain speaking. In an analyst call after its quarterly results recently, Takkar said that the main stumbling block to raising fresh capital from investors is "pricing" - telecom tariffs, in other words. Nine months ago, the telecom company's board had cleared a proposal for raising Rs 25,000 crore from investors, after the promoters made it clear that they were not ready to pump in more money. But potential investors are concerned that without clarity on tariff hikes (there have been none for more than 18 months) they might just lose their money. The lack of visibility on raising tariffs has also impelled VIL to request the Department of Telecom (DoT) for a fresh reprieve by extending the two-year moratorium on paying its spectrum instalment of Rs 8,200 crore for another year till FY23.
Trai has suggested abolition of ADC on private operators. This move will make telecom services more affordable.
Availability of Wi-Fi is also expected to provide local airlines an additional source of revenues amid stiff competition in the fast growing Indian aviation market.
Starting December 1, the country's 3.2 million Direct-to-Home subscribers will be able to ask for refunds on DTH equipment (the set-top box and antenna) if they choose to discontinue the service.
The government will have to make substantial payments, as well as forego revenues in FY'23, if it wants to work on the survival of Vodafone Idea because it will have to extend the same incentives to the entire telecom sector. According to estimates, the industry has to spend around Rs 21,000-Rs 25,000 crore for spectrum which it bought on a deferred payment basis. Vodafone Idea has asked for a moratorium for another year (FY23). If granted, the government will have foregone the instalment payout for a third year in a row as it has already provided a moratorium for two years, giving telcos Rs 42,000 crore worth of relief.
India is ranked below Bhutan and Sri Lanka in terms of broadband penetration, says TRAI.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has set the ball rolling for the second phase of telecom reforms with the issue of a consultation paper seeking the industry's views on review of key license conditions and capping the number of access providers.
The new "combo vouchers" will enable customers to add value in their mobile phone account as well as avail services at discounted rates.
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