About Rs 52,500 crore (Rs 525 billion) has been offered as of the fourth day of the ongoing wireless spectrum auction on Thursday, with metros like Delhi seeing renewed demand for airwaves.
The total demand has remained subdued mainly due to high interest rates and property prices.
Ending all speculation surrounding the roll-out of conditional access system (CAS) in the country, the government on Tuesday gave in-principle approval to CAS extension in rest of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, and subsequently in 55 cities in a phased manner as suggested by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
Setting aside differences over the implementation of the conditional access system, broadcasters and cable operators have decided to join hands to fight piracy of pay channels in CAS areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
As the CAS technology gives the consumers a choice in watching television channels with assured quality of service and affordable pricing, a nationwide CAS roll-out will bring down the average monthly cable bills of the consumers by almost half to about Rs 150-Rs 200.
The British Council is organising a souvenir design workshop in Mumbai and Kolkata.
DTH is still growing month-on-month, while the figures of CAS subscribers have begun to stagnate.
Broadcast regulator TRAI is exploring the option of allowing voluntary implementation of conditional access system in non-notified areas following the success achieved in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
Trai has announced that it may fix prices of pay channels on the direct-to-home (DTH) platform in line with the Rs 5 per channel cap on conditional access system (CAS) services in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. This move will lower the fees but hit the income of broadcasters from DTH companies. However, new DTH entrants will benefit from the move as their cost of content will decrease. For the 2 existing DTH companies, Dish TV & Tata Sky, the current rates are likely to continue.
Telecom Regulatory Authority of India said on Thursday it may intervene to mend differences between ESPN and its distributors in conditional access system areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata to ensure that subscribers get to watch the sports channel.
Currently, the base price (Rs 5) is also the maximum retail price for pay channels in CAS areas. The biggest impact of price revision will be on the forthcoming 55-city roll out of CAS, as proposed by Trai, and also the extension of CAS in rest of the three metros.
The government will get an additional revenue of 20 per cent from the auction of the 1,800 MHz and 900 MHz bands of spectrum, based on the Telecom Commission's recommendations, compared with those of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
Broadcast regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India will hold a meeting with the stakeholders on Thursday to discuss how to roll-out conditional access system in the metros.
India and Japan will next month sign an agreement for a dedicated rail freight corridor connecting Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, which will significantly reduce the time taken for transporting goods from one metro to another.
With over 700 stations spanning across the country and mobile penetration on the rise, FM players are now reaching out to listeners via the visual radio route too.
The move is significant as the ministry has announced its intention to set up another committee to evaluate the success of CAS in areas where it has been implemented. The committee is likely to submit its report by December.
About five million cable households in the three metros - Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata - will continue to pay higher cable bills as the extension of the Conditional Access System in these cities has been delayed by at least six to eight months.
GoAir on Monday said it plans expansion and has ordered 20 A320 aircraft .
Population of towns and cities in developing countries like India is set to double in the space of a generation.
Preliminary industry numbers show that against a demand for 200,000 cable boxes in the three cities so far, operators have only been able to service a little over half the demand.
Satisfied with the roll-out of CAS in notified areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, the government on Wednesday said the digital cable delivery system would be extended beyond the metros to other areas
Conditional access system notified areas in Mumbai have turned into a battleground with local cable operators and multi-system operators trading allegations
Consumer groups and bodies have demanded Conditional Access System be implemented beyond the four metros where it is scheduled to be rolled out and said there should be a "complete ban" on advertising on pay channels.
In the battle between the conditional access system and the direct-to-home services, the latter seems to be edging ahead.
The Direct-to-Home service providers are cashing in on the confusion over the implementation the Conditional Access System in some areas of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata.
TATA Interactive Systems is recruiting e-learning creators.
Excerpts from CNBC-TV18's exclusive interview with Sushil Gupta and Vivek Nair.
IndiGo will add Nagpur to its flight map from October 20 with daily flight to Mumbai and Kolkata.
The five-year-old Chinese brand's assent to the summit comes after a year of astounding rise -- often growing by over 200 percent a quarter, reports Arnab Dutta.
The $12 surcharge on US passport application fees will be used to increase border security by strengthening the security of the passport adjudication process.
The govt is expected to achieve the revenue target of Rs 40,000 crore from spectrum sale this fiscal, Telecom Secretary M F Farooqui said.
Asian Hotels Limited, which owns the Hyatt Regency chain of hotels in Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, is planning to develop new properties in several other cities of the country, a top company official said.
Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance Jio Infocomm and five other telecom firms will battle it out at the spectrum auction tomorrow, from which the government expects to garner at least Rs 11,300 crore (Rs 113 billion).
Infovision Software, the leading medical transcription company, said on Monday that it planned to increase the strength of trained people to around 2000 persons in Mumbai and Kolkata in the next three years.
IndiGo Airlines, a new domestic airline, will introduce a daily flight from Nagpur to Mumbai and Kolkata from October 20.
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