Industry body COAI plans to approach DoT citing Supreme Court's 2012 order
The Delhi high court restrained BSNL on Thursday from awarding contracts for its Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion) GSM network expansion project till November 30.
In a setback to state-owned BSNL, the Delhi High Court on Thursday restrained the PSU from awarding any contract for their GSM network expansion till the next date of hearing on November 16.
All 10 GSM operators in the country will soon launch the MIM service, which allows real time chatting among mobile users.
With the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) refusing to reserve 900-MHz spectrum for incumbent telcos, asking them to vacate the quantity held and win back through bidding, GSM operators, led by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), have decided to propose a compromise formula.
Sandwiched between employees' threat of a strike and telecom minister A Raja's insistence to renegotiate the GSM expansion deal, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited said on Friday it hopes to find a solution soon for ending the impasse.
ZTE Worldwide has plans to launch high-end handsets on Microsoft and Android platforms as well.
In view of the strong demand, state-run BSNL will add 60 million GSM lines in 2006-07 at an estimated investment of a whopping Rs 20,000 crore (Rs 200 billion).
Haier India, a 100 per cent subsidiary of Haier group of China, on Wednesday launched a series of GSM mobile phones in Kolkata.
China United Telecom plans to launch mobile phone handsets with dual-band technology in mid-July that shares data and voice service between GSM and CDMA users.
The solution required operators to accept, in the interim, the industry regulator's recommendation suggesting a major increase in subscriber numbers for service providers to qualify for additional allocation of spectrum, the radio frequencies that enable wireless communications.
The service, which would be branded 'Tata-DoCoMo', would be commercially rolled out towards the end of this month in the southern region, followed by western and northern regions. NTT DoCoMo acquired 26 per cent stake in Tata Teleservices for $2.7 billion last year. The company would be investing $2 billion in the operations, TTSL managing director Anil Sardana told reporters. This is $0.5 billion higher than its earlier earmarked investment of $1.5 billion.
The alliance, which is contesting in all 35 out of the 40 seats in the Goa assembly has announced Sudin Dhavalikar as their chief ministerial face.
GSM operators (excluding Reliance Telecom) in the country added 6.3 million subscribers in August, taking the total number of users to 225.6 million. In July, the total GSM subscriber base in the country was 219.30 million.
The company recently received permission to launch GSM services within its existing license and is awaiting allocation of spectrum, the radio frequency that enables wireless communications, from the government. CDMA and GSM services cannot be operated on the same spectrum.
The Cellular Operators Association of India, the GSM-based operators' lobby, on Friday pulled out of an official panel for reviewing spectrum allocation norms, alleging that the committee had a "predetermined mindset" and was ignoring all its suggestions.
The government struck a cordial note with the GSM mobile lobby by agreeing on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai's) norms for spectrum allocation, a move described by rival CDMA player Reliance Communications (RCom) as "succumbing to pressure".
BSNL had earlier cancelled its tender for 5.5 million GSM lines and called for bids again after revising the guidelines, following an amendment in the licence conditions for security purposes.
LG Electronics India Ltd on Monday said it was targeting about Rs 300 crore (Rs 3 billion) revenues from sale of GSM handsets in Indian market this year.
The Cellular Operators Association of India said it would not take any legal step on the issue, unlike what it had said earlier.
Five global telecom equipment vendors -- Nokia, Motorola, Ericsson, Siemens and ZTE -- are in the fray for BSNL's 45.5 million GSM lines tender, bids for which were opened on Monday.
A bench comprising acting Chief Justice M K Sharma and Justice Hima Kohli granted a week's time to Motorola to file its reply on the response filed by BSNL.
The new platform allows subscribers to be on instant messaging even if they are overseas and roaming in one of the member-operator's service.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have demanded allocation of a part of CDMA spectrum in 800 Mhz band for GSM services.
According to the latest data released by Cellular Operators' Association of India, the total GSM subscriber base rose to 257,85 million, up from 249.35 million in November 2008, a growth of about 3.25 per cent in December.
With the existing operators garnering the high-average revenue per user subscriber, new service providers like RCom has to look at new customers," Gartner principal research analyst Naresh Singh said.
Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran on Saturday announced that state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited would invite bids for adding 60 million GSM lines envisaging an investment of over $4.5 billion.
GSM mobile telephony operators have resisted any move to levy entry charge for 3G spectrum from existing operators, even as they opposed allocation of additional spectrum to CDMA-based mobile service providers.
State-owned BSNL may delay opening of financial bids for its 45.5 GSM line tender beyond May 10 as most of the telecom vendors have sought more time to study the offer details.
GSM operators in the country added 8.97 million users during April 2009 (excluding Reliance Telecom), after recording the highest mobile subscriber addition of 11.2 million last month.
DoT is also planning to carry out verification on operators' premises to check the technologies they employ.
The fall in GSM-based cellular subscribers growth continued with just 979,000 additions in May 2004, at 2.81 crore (28.1 million), with the Bharti Group cornering over one-fourth of the market at 73.43 lakh (7.34 million) customers.
No licensing system should come in the way of the country's progress: Shourie
Anil Ambani's Reliance Communication on Sunday launched GSM services in Mumbai and offered free talk-time worth Rs 900 spread over three months. "New subscribers would get Rs 10 talk-time every day for the first 90 days and we have offered tariffs of Re 1 a minute for local calls. STD would cost Rs 1.50 per minute on any network," Dinesh Gulati, the head of Western region, said. After consuming Rs 10 during the day, the subscribers can use top up cards.
Tata Teleservices on Saturday said it would invest $2 billion (over Rs 8,000 crore) in rolling out GSM-based mobile services in the country.
Cellular Operators Association of India, the association for GSM operators, has taken legal opinion which clearly states that the government cannot go in for auctioning of 2G spectrum and deprive them of additional spectrum.
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