In an effort to make 3G telecom service available while being able to monitor it closely, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said its members were working with the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) to formulate rules to allow the intercepting and monitoring needed for national security.
Meanwhile, a top official of RIM paid a courtesy visit to Home Minister P Chidambaram.
Says nothing should move until system is in place to enable full tapping of lines.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Thursday defended Home Minister P Chidamabaram in the Supreme Court in the 2G scam by blaming the Department of Telecommunication for "jumping the gun" in spectrum allocation.
Idea may have to shell out Rs 4,500 crore in cash
'Pressures come to those on whom pressure can be brought upon. I have had no such instance in the past. So pressures do not matter to me,' retired Supreme Court judge Shivraj Patil tells Vicky Nanjappa.
According to senior officials in the department of telecommunication 20 Mhz of spectrum has been given to the four firms -- Infotel, Bharti, Aircel and Tikona Digital, which have licences to offer services.
Telecom regulator TRAI on Tuesday released a detailed consultation paper to discuss threadbare the modalities for auction of spectrum across multiple bands, including pricing, quantum and other conditions -- preparing the groundwork for 5G auctions slated for next year. Trai's comprehensive consultation paper runs into 207 pages and throws up 74 questions for industry-wide discussion, touching on crucial aspects like valuation and reserve price of spectrum, including 5G, quantum of spectrum, block size, eligibility conditions for participation in auction, roll-out obligations, spectrum cap, and surrender of spectrum. Norms will also be worked out for new frequencies such as 526-698 MHz and millimetre band, that is 24.25 - 28.5 GHz, in addition to bands such as 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz, 2500 MHz, 3300-3670 MHz.
The department of telecommunications (DoT) will soon start looking into the issue of ineligibility of recent licensees such as Unitech, Loop and Datacom, in the wake of the Comptroller and Auditor-General's scathing report. And, take action, if it thinks it is required.
The department of telecommunication has sent notices to Etilsalat DB, along with other new operators for cancelling their licences, as it failed to start services even after two years of getting spectrum, which is a violation of the licence terms and conditions.
Regulator wants the power to fine errant telecom companies.
Tier-II and tier-III towns have a reason to rejoice.
The two PSUs have been losing revenues as well as market share.
This decision was taken at Executive Council meeting of National Association of Software and Service Companies held in Pune.
The court asked Idea to transfer all the licences of Spice back to DoT.
DoT further clarified that since 2003 as many as 51 new licences were issued prior to January 2008 under the same guidelines on first come first served basis.
Government websites -- including those of the Prime Minister's Office, home and petroleum ministries, and the department of telecommunications -- were out of service for many hours on Monday. An official attributed the cause to firewall problems.
The Unique Identification Authority of India, the apex agency managing the UID project, which aims to give every resident of the country a unique identity, has initiated the process to make this happen, according to chairman Nandan Nilekani.
A senior official in the Telecom Ministry said the government is considering an exit option for the new telecom players who are struggling to roll out services.
The government will start allotting third generation (3G) spectrum from Wednesday to successful bidders, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Communications and Vodafone Essar, among others. A senior DoT official, said the allotment of 3G spectrum will start on Wednesday.
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 scheme will be offered to 15,000 employees, or one-third of the workforce, in the current financial year.
Reliance Communications on Friday said it has been allotted a brand new 8080 series by the DoT for roll-out in Mumbai.
On September 3, department of telecommunication had directed that all handsets without IMEI numbers be banned with effect from December 1, 2009.
The Home Ministry will hold a meeting with Department of Telecommunications and service providers to take a view on BlackBerry's services on Thursday, and is expected to direct them to stop certain features which cannot be accessed by security agencies.
Scheme likely to come into force by June or July this year; both PSUs have been losing revenues and market share.
Idea Cellular has over 68 million mobile subscribers and has operations in most of the circles across the country.
Department of telecommunications has set up a committee to look into the issue of escalating cost for the project.
The prime minister's directive comes in the wake of telecom minister A Raja seeking his intervention for early resolution of BSNL's tender controversy.
The companies have offered to pay upfront the principal amount due for licence fees and spectrum usage charges (SUCs) on the basis of adjusted gross revenue (AGR). This amount will not include the interest, the penalty, and the interest on the penalty.
DoT said SingTel was selling the full-circuit IPLC links to customers directly and also invoicing the customers in India without having a licence.
Nine companies were given new licences in January 2008.
The government will miss the June 30 deadline to implement nationwide mobile number portability, as telecom public sectors MTNL and BSNL, and a new operator Uninor, are not ready with equipment.
Move aimed at strengthening Sebi's powers to investigate market-related offences.
The DoT also clarified that all queries have been duly and promptly replied in time. The Director General Audit, Post and Telegraph in continuation of their earlier queries has issued Draft Report on July 19 to DoT for comments.
The DoT issued the information memorandum last week, saying auction would start on January 14 and for this to happen, the blocks of spectrum to be auctioned must be identified latest by the first week of December.
