"As the existing licensees have already made huge investments in the infrastructure and their systems are in place, therefore, they will be in a better position to deliver 3G services efficiently at low incremental cost," Trai said in its views on permitting new entity for 3G Services.
The telecom department has sent a letter of intent to NM Rothschild.
All operators would have to shift to NGN networks in near future. NGN is a single network of services and infrastructure functioning over an Internet Protocol network. This digital mode is superior to the existing network.
Research-in-Motion, the Canada-based provider of Blackberry services, has assured Indian operators that it has come up with a solution to the contentious issue of allowing government security agencies to monitor the service without compromising data security.
Sam Pitroda-backed Vavasi Telegence's request for unused radio frequency to be allotted to launch mobile services across the country is unlikely to be met by the department of telecommunication because it said international technology specifications for this wireless technology do not exist. Instead, DoT is considering the option of allotting the company spectrum in the 400 to 430 MHz band, radio frequencies that are currently not used for mobile services in India.
In a major development, the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has cleared applications of nine telecom aspirants and is close to issuing them Letters of Intent. This will be followed by issuance of universal access service licences and allocation of spectrum.
DoT is asking the public to help to check illegal routing of international calls, which is causing the dept a loss of Rs 5000 cr.
Also looks at creating a level-playing field for GSM and CDMA players.
Bharti Airtel said on Wednesday the government has alloted additional spectrum to the company in five telecom circles in the country. The five circles are West Bengal, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh (west), Assam and Haryana.
In a move that will not augur well for companies which have been awarded 2G licences recently, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has rejected proposals by new telecom entrants for a relaxation of rollout obligations.
Official sources said Verizon's license application was under process and "there should be no problem in issuing them letters of intent for national and international long distance (NLD/ILD) business".
The department of telecommunications has raised questions about the merger between Idea Cellular and Spice Telecom violating key clauses on intra-circle merger and mobile licence conditions.
Tata Teleservices spokesperson confirmed the development, and said: "We have written to theDoT seeking clarity on the issue."
The issue of spectrum allocation has become murkier, with the Association of United Service Providers of India (Auspi) -- the CDMA operators' body -- slamming the move by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to allocate additional spectrum to existing private GSM operators.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has finalised the long-awaited policy for 3G services that will permit new international telecom firms with experience in this arena to bid for a licence.
The Department of Telecommunications is set to issue guidelines for telemarketers in order to check unsolicited commercial calls.
In a move that will result in further snowballing of the spectrum issue, British telecom major Vodafone has termed the Reliance Communications' (RCom) allegations "as false and inconsistent with the facts".
'The recent incident in the US has no bearing in India.' 'We are not aware of any request from the US to India about 5G.'
The Department of Telecommunication and mobile service providers, including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Communications failed to reach a consensus on the spectrum issue during a meeting held on Wednesday. According to sources, Reliance Communications Chairman Anil Ambani raised the issue of extra spectrum being held by GSM operators. He asked how over 6.2 MHz of radio waves have been given to GSM players beyond their contractual agreement.
The Department of Telecommunications has called a meeting of the heads of all leading telecom companies offering GSM technology services on November 21 to resolve contentious issues that have arisen following recent changes in telecom policy.
In a major bonanza to over 37.5 million mobile customers, the Department of Telecommunications announced the introduction of 'number portability' in Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.
Telecom Secretary Siddartha Behura is learnt to have made a request to the Prime Minister's Office to convene a meeting that will include PMO, DoT, telecom regulator TRAI and finance secretary to resolve the controversy over spectrum allocation and pricing. He said the department is in dialogue with the ministry of finance regarding certain issues relating to guidelines for auction of 3G spectrum and pricing of 2G spectrum.
Deliberations by the government is being carried out to keep cost and charges at a level so as not to discourage subscribers willing to change their service provider, an optional facility, and at the same time make the service providers a viable business model. The charge is directly linked to the number of subscribers, who would seek the change in service provider out of the total mobile user base of about 400 million.
GSM service provider Idea Cellular will invest an additional $400 million (Rs 1,600 crore) for rolling out telecom services in four new circles - Mumbai, Bihar, Tamil Nadu and Orissa - for which it has received spectrum from the Department of Telecommunications.
Going by application dates, companies like Spice, Birla-promoted Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications (through Swan and Cheetah) and Hindustan Futuristic are in the lead for licences in different circles. The only new player in the list is the little-known ByCell.Several incumbents like Idea Cellular, Maxis-Aircell, owned by a Malaysian promoter, and Vodafone-Essar lead the list of applicants for initial spectrum allocation since they already hold licences.
The rush to enter the world's fastest-growing mobile services market has attracted a wide range of applicants for telecom licences with the Department of Telecommunications.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has significantly tightened the noose on mergers among telecom operators within a circle by imposing a three-year lock-in period, besides making it mandatory for them to take prior permission from the ministry.
The Department of Telecommunications is considering a proposal to allocate spectrum, the radio frequencies that enable wireless communications, for third-generation or 3G services to state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd ahead of other operators. The move is expected to frustrate private players since this will give BSNL and MTNL a head-start in rolling out high-value 3G services that offer video calls, music downloads and games.
The Department of Telecommunications has received 21 bids from telecom operators and infrastructure service providers for the Rs 2,395 crore (Rs 23.95 billion) rural telephony project.
The members could include National Security Advisor M K Narayanan, the secretary, Department of Telecommunications, and the secretary, Ministry of Defence.
Even as Left parties have demanded a review of the tax concessions provided to SEZs, the DoT has sought extension of excise duty exemptions to industrial units set up in telecom-specific SEZs.
The draft guidelines prepared by the Telecom Engineering Centre and under consideration of the department of telecommunication have suggested, among other things, that children below 16 years should be discouraged from using cellular phones.
Indian operators offering BlackBerry services, top executives of Canadian telco Research in Motion (RIM), the company that owns the brand, security agencies and officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) are expected to meet on March 14 to answer the concerns of security agencies in a bid to prevent having BlackBerry services terminated after the March-end deadline.
Canadian communications major Research In Motion (RIM), owners of the BlackBerry brand of mobile phones, has assured the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that it would sort out the BlackBerry tangle by initiating discussions between security agencies of Canada and India. The move comes in response to a government notice directing BlackBerry service providers to stop services by December 31, 2007.
Foreign operators may fail to provide quality 3G services, unlike their Indian counterparts, as the Department of Telecommunications is offering spectrum in tranches of 5 MHz, which is insufficient for starting operations.
The opening of bids has been deferred to September 22 from September 3 as decided earlier. The pre-bid conference, which was to be held on August 27, has also been re-scheduled to September 8. However, according to the revised schedule issued by the communications ministry, there will be no delay in the date of identifying the agency. The finalisation of the bids will be completed by September 30 as announced earlier by Telecom Secretary Siddhartha Behura.
The department of telecommunication had earlier said a CDMA operator had written a letter to the government seeking auction of additional spectrum against the current subscriber-led allocation.
The roll-out of 3G or third-generation mobile telephony services, scheduled for this year-end, may be delayed after the Ministry of Finance strongly criticised the Department of Telecommunications for announcing 3G guidelines without consulting it. In a communication with the DoT earlier this week, the finance ministry said the move was inappropriate and contrary to a 2003 cabinet decision.
Solicitor General of India Goolam E Vahanvati appearing for the Department of Telecommunication on Thursday informed the sectoral tribunal TDSAT that on January 10 the government had issued 121 LoIs, of which 120 have already complied with its terms and conditions.
Indian consumers will have their tryst with 3G telecom services in the next six months, with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announcing that it is issuing state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) spectrum to roll out all-India services.
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