Newer telecom operators and dual technology entities are opposing the department of telecommunications (DoT)'s decision to ask the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) to give its view on whether the price of spectrum being offered in the coming 2G auction should be valid for 10 years instead of 20 years.
A three-judge bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia asked the company to file its representation before the IT department.
RIM says it cannot provide access to the BlackBerry Enterprise Solution as it does not possess any key and the security architecture is the same around the world.
The minister said the companies have given representation which is being examined by the DoT before taking a final decision.
Delhi High Court says it can do so under the TRAI Act, rejects petitions filed by telecom associations.
The income tax department has moved the Supreme Court stating that private telecom service providers are liable to deduct tax at source for the payments made to state-owned BSNL and MTNL for inter-connectivity.
The Swadeshi Jagaran Manch has pointed out that these firms pose a threat to domestic manufacturing and retailing as they do not pay relevant taxes such as GST, giving them a huge edge over local players.
Handset firms Karbonn and Lava International launched their smartphones, while Maxx Mobiles introduced its feature phone targetted at the rural market.
The government will send notices to 85 companies asking why their licences should not be cancelled for suppressing facts, said Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Monday.
Reliance Industries, which holds pan-India 4G telecom spectrum for data services, has applied for a licence to offer mobile telephony.
Former Telecom Secretary D S Mathur on Tuesday told a Delhi court that he did not find the Department of Telecom officially processing some key letters on the 2G spectrum allocation issue, exchanged between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and erstwhile Telecom Minister A Raja.
Terming unsolicited calls by the telemarketers as a "menace", Minister of State for Telecom Sachin Pilot said the government will soon put a complete curb on such calls and SMSes.
The new rules are aimed at providing a strong impetus to the industry and positioning India as one of the most competitive IT jurisdictions in the world.
In a relief to the incumbent telecom operators, who have more than 6.2 MHz spectrum, the department of telecom (DoT) on Friday clarified the retrospective fee on spectrum beyond 6.2 MHz would be calculated based on the 2001 auction price, indexed to the prime lending rate (PLR) of a state-owned bank.
Long before he launched Paytm, Vijay Shankar Sharma, a 32 year old from Aligarh, embarked on his ambitious entrepreneurial journey.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday said production linked incentive (PLI) scheme, which is aimed at boosting domestic manufacturing and exports, is expected to increase the country's production by $520 billion in the next five years. Addressing a webinar on PLI scheme, organised by Department of Industry and International Trade (DPIIT) and NITI Aayog, through video conference, Modi said the government is continuously carrying out reforms to boost domestic manufacturing. In this year's Budget, about Rs 2 lakh crore was earmarked for the PLI scheme for the next five years and "there is an expectation that the scheme would result in increasing the production by about $520 billion in the next five years", he said. He added that there is also an expectation that the current workforce in the sectors, which will avail the benefits of the PLI scheme, will be doubled and job creation will also increase.
The Government had earlier asked the operators to take security clearance before buying any key telecom gear.
Mobile subscribers from May 3 will be able to port their numbers anywhere in the country.
Supreme Court had asked the government to issue RCom a NoC for spectrum sale to Reliance Jio Infocomm by December 9 if it furnishes a corporate guarantee of Rs 1,400 crore
The Delhi high court on Wednesday questioned actress-environmentalist Juhi Chawla for directly filing a suit against the setting up of 5G wireless networks in the country without giving any representation to the government on her concerns related to the technology.
Apex auditor CAG on Friday lamented that private telecom operators are not providing their account books to it, despite a request from the government.
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.
'Considering that an Internet company's market value is largely determined by its direct access to consumers for digital services, and largely served outside a sovereign country's control, it would appear reasonable in trade terms to discuss fees for a seat at the proverbial 'table' of opportunities in the largest open consumer market,' argues Venki Nishtala.
Earlier, the Telecom Commission, a decision-making arm of the Telecom Ministry, had recommended that the government pick up a majority stake in the special purpose vehicle created to execute the sale of surplus land lying with VSNL (now Tata Communications).
An internal committee of Department of Telecom had alleged that Bharti Airtel had continued to route national and international calls as local calls under a scheme till 2005 despite being told to stop it in 2003.
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.
Telcos demanding OTT players to come under some sort of regulation as they are eating into their SMS and voice revenues.
The IT department had issued a tax assessment order in December 2011 asking Vodafone to add Rs 8,500 crore (Rs 85 billion) to its taxable income, thus raising the tax liability of the company.
The Telecom Ministry on Monday said its technical team is testing the solution of interception given by smartphone BlackBerry maker Research In Motion (RIM) and is expecting a report by end of October.
DoT has sought "necessary details" from the Finance Ministry to take action in this regard.
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has sent a letter to the Pilibhit District Election Officer seeking necessary action against Bharatiya Janata Party MP.
Department of Telecom had sought the legal opinion of the matter from the government's counsel.
Says no evidence yet to incriminate Maran for coercion in Aircel-Maxis deal.
'At least three top bureaucrats have been declared guilty in recent years in connection with scams where they had no pecuniary benefit.' 'But in the telecom case, a money trail is declared irrelevant because no scam has been proved in the first place.' 'Fair enough; so we must punish illegality without criminality, but ignore possible criminality as suggestive of illegality,' points out T N Ninan.
Saudi Aramco chairman and head of the Kingdom's cash-rich wealth fund PIF Yasir Othman Al-Rumayyan will join the board of Reliance Industries Ltd as an independent director in a precursor to a $15 billion deal. Reliance chairman and Asia's richest man Mukesh Ambani, who had two years back disclosed the talks to sell a 20 per cent stake in the company's oil-to-chemical unit to Saudi Aramco, announced the appointment of Al-Rumayyan at the company's annual meeting of shareholders. Harvard educated Al-Rumayyan, 51, will replace Yogendra P Trivedi, 92, who has expressed a desire to retire, Ambani said. On the sale of a 20 per cent stake in the O2C business, he said the deal is likely to conclude this year.
The company has already made payments for the spectrum according to rules.
Bharti Airtel, the country's largest mobile operator, has already joined the global Seamless Alliance to provide in-flight connectivity.
With hopes of raising funds through an initial public offer (IPO) or selling a stake to a strategic investor fading due to stiff opposition from the unions, the government is working on a proposal for a private placement of shares for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), India's fifth-largest telecom company,
People familiar with the proceedings said independent cybersecurity experts from a private consulting firm, technology lawyers, government officials and WhatsApp representatives were asked questions about the Pegasus spyware and the larger issues surrounding surveillance, hacking and remedial measures.
