Released on Wednesday, the report shows that 81 per cent of men and 72 per cent of women in India owned a mobile phone as of 2022, translating to a gender gap of 11 per cent. The numbers drop steeply in terms of mobile internet adoption. While 52 per cent of Indian men use mobile internet, women are way behind, with only 31 per cent of them accessing mobile internet, the report pointed out.
With seven million new subscribers, India accounted for the highest net addition of mobile subscriptions globally in the second quarter of 2023, according to the August edition of Ericsson Mobility. Among national markets, India was followed by China with five million and the US with three million subscribers. The subscriber penetration in India, however, stood at 79 per cent, compared to 120 per cent in China, the report said.
The plethora of tariff schemes offered by telecom service providers has caught the attention of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
The telecom regulator on Monday flayed the action of cellular operators to hike tariffs following the implementation of new IUC regime, saying its own calculations showed there was no justification for an upward revision in call charges.\n\n\n\n
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday said it would come out with the final consultation paper on full unification of telecom services in a "couple of weeks."
The wait for mobile subscribers to get relief from telemarketing calls has got longer. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has extended the deadline for the third time for implementation of guidelines to curb telemarketing calls, to April 1.
With already around 500 television channels on air, the ministry is now concerned about streamlining the process of allowing the opening of new channels.
Information and Broadcasting Ministry says no cap will be placed on the number of private satellite channels
The MNP service was introduced on a pilot basis in Haryana on November 25, 2010 and later rolled out pan-India from January 20 this year.
Mobile television allows the consumers to watch live as well as pre-recorded television content on a mobile handset using a specialised mobile television broadcasting technology. Currently, only video clips can be downloaded on mobile handsets.
Telecom regulator Trai on Monday said that it is working on various technologies to detect pesky calls and messages along with a joint action plan with other regulators to curb financial frauds. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said that Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) or pesky communication is a major source of inconvenience to the public and impinges on the privacy of individuals. "Now complaints are reported against Unregistered Telemarketers (UTMs), where a surge has been seen in pushing various kinds of UCC SMSes. Additionally, UCC calls are also one of the concerns which need to be dealt with equally along with UCC SMSes," it said.
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.
TRAI said it will submit recommendations on the TDSAT's directive to work out a level playing field between the cellular and basic operators offering wireless in local loop services, to the government in 2-3 months.
As per the service licence, three types of charges, including Per Port Transaction charge, which means the charge payable by the Recipient Operator (the operator, where the subscriber is willing to port his number) to the MNP service provider for processing the request, are applicable in case of MNP. The second charge is porting charge -- the charge payable by the subscriber for porting his number -- and the third is dipping charge.
VAS operators constantly complain that as they provide features, content and a wide range of services like ringer tunes to mobile operators for their customers in the absence of a proper regulatory structure, they don't get adequate financial returns from telcos.
In a definite signal that mobile phone service providers are not going to lose their licences even after the scheduled end of their validity, the Department of Telecommunications has asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to recommend terms and conditions for extending the licence periods forever.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has pulled up Cellular Operators Association of India
The three undersea cable station owners were asked by Trai to submit the Cable Landing Station - Reference Interconnect Offer,' containing the terms and conditions, charges and time limit for providing access. Now, Trai has approved the RIO of four cable landing stations of VSNL in the country and one each of Bharti and Anil Ambani's Reliance.
At present, there is no such system to know if the customer's complaint has been addressed or not, if not why, once a user lodges complaint with a service provider on any issues ranging from billing to quality of service. It is left to the telcos to look at complaints and act on it and sometimes there are long-pending complaints which go unadressed for a long time or not looked into at all and the customers become helpless and stop pursuing the solution.
Admitting that its recent order reducing pulse rate of fixed line telephony would increase the cost of accessing internet, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Wednesday said it would address the issue but refused to review its directive per se.
BSNL, MTNL to match cell phone tariff cuts
In a reversal of its recommendations made in April 2008, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India whittled the increase it had suggested then in the foreign direct investment cap for companies set up to uplink television news channels, as well as in FM radio.
The investment limit for news and current affairs TV channels has been retained at 26 per cent.
Initiating a fresh round of price war, Bharti, offering telecom services under the AirTel brand, on Thursday reduced long distance mobile tariffs by upto Rs 1.75 per minute for ISD and 35 paise for STD calls.
As India, the second largest telecom market in the world, has taken the lead in designing a system unique in the world that includes two databases -- a 'Do Not Call' and a 'Do Call' registry with 7 preference categories for customers who would like to receive only select calls and SMSes.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday directed cellular operators to seek the consent of the subscribers before providing services like voice mail.
In what could give a big relief to new mobile players, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is unlikely to cancel 53 licences - as recommended by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) - for non-fulfilment of rollout obligations.
The Cellular Operators Association of India on Monday clarified it had no intention of 'suing' the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on its recent move to release a consultation paper on unified licensing regime.
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