The private cellular operators have asked the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India to consider fixing the annual licence fee at 6 per cent across all segments, as part of full unification of telecom services.
Rocket Boys offer an overwhelming experience to me and many others who saw Homi Bhabha in action at Trombay, observes Dr K S Parthasarathy, former Secretary, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board.
Lifting restrictions on airing news and current affairs and permitting licensees to own multiple licences are among a host of issues Trai has put up in its first consultation paper on FM radio privatisation on Wednesday.
The Delhi circle licence will be available in the efficient 900 MHz spectrum, which is why Videocon is interested.
The recommendations on the subject will be sent in due course to the government, according to an internal communication of DoT
Zomato has the potential to be an equally important milestone for Indian equity markets, notes Akash Prakash.
The absence of a transparent telecom regulatory environment not only makes life difficult for service providers, but also impacts investors' confidence in the sector, a senior Bharti Airtel official said.
This is the last lot of payments that telcos will make towards deferred spectrum liabilities, as the Union Cabinet had late last year approved a two-year moratorium on such spectrum payment dues.
Virtual currencies don't have any intrinsic value and are not backed by any kind of assets.
After the Reserve Bank of India restricted the Sri Guru Raghavendra Co-operative Bank from doing business with immediate effect and capped the withdrawal limit at Rs 35,000, depositors on Tuesday queued up outside the bank's branches in Bengaluru. The regulatory body said the bank will continue to undertake banking business with restrictions until its financial position improves.
Cellular industry's hopes for a compensation in lieu of unified licence may be dashed with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India finding no merit in it since the cellular operators have already been given sops over Rs 30,000 crore.
Telecom operators can look forward to offering all telecom and broadcasting services, including cable TV, DTH, STD, ISD and radio, through a single licence by paying a one-time fee of Rs 107 crore (Rs 1.07 billion).
The basic telecom operators accused Trai of not following the process of transparent consultation on matters as significant as amending the licence terms of one set of operators, and urged the government not to implement Trai's recommendations.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on Monday proposed a high reserve price for telecom spectrum to be auctioned, at nearly Rs 3,622 crore (Rs 36.22 billion) per MHz in the 1,800-MHz band (for GSM services).
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The inter-ministerial body will take the final decision on October 29 taking into account Trai's reply.
Successful bidders will have to pay 25 per cent of the amount upfront for sub 1 GHz, and 50 per cent upfront for higher frequency bands.
Reliance Industries on Friday said that their offer of roaming facility across 673 cities on WLL phones was "well within the licence conditions" and the company has communicated this to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
While smart boys like the Ruias of Essar, Ajay Piramal, Max India promoter Analjit Singh laughed all the way to the bank, the Tatas, Anil Ambani, Malaysian tycoon T Ananda Krishna of Maxis (which invested in Aircel), Sistema, and Norway's Telenor burnt their fingers, notes Surajeet Das Gupta.
TRAI said the two companies failed to fulfill roll-out obligations and their merger was in violation of rules.
India may adopt norms similar to the US Federal Reserve model, which regulates conglomerate-led banks in the country.
The Supreme Court on Friday issued notice on a petition filed by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India challenging an order of TDSAT holding that the regulatory body had no authority to adjudicate on disputes raised by a service provider.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will finalise its internal view on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai's) recommendations, which was given in May last year, on mergers and acquisitions, spectrum allocation, spectrum sharing and other licencing aspects by the end of this month, a senior official from the department said.
In a development that may help jailed former Telecom Minister's A Raja's defence in court, the telecom regulator has informed the CBI that Trai did not recommend the auction of 2G spectrum in 2007, implying that there was no loss to the exchequer in the award of licences.
Reliance Infrastructure (R-Infra), an Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group company, is on the warpath with the state electricity regulator. Stung by the Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission's (MERC's) decision to invite expressions of interest (EoIs) for the distribution of power to Mumbai's suburbs, R-Infra is examining the possibility of legal action.
It will help in reducing the turnaround time.
Trai has said the three operators were "intentionally denying and delaying" the provision of points of interconnects (PoIs) to Jio, "only to restrict a new entrant thus violating the terms and conditions of licence and regulations of the Authority which also caused a lot of inconvenience to the consumers."
The fear of another scam pushed the government into a rather long period of so-called 'policy paralysis'. To play it safe, the price of spectrum in all subsequent auctions was benchmarked to the high 3G rates, says Surajeet Das Gupta.
The Indian regulatory framework forced Citi to hibernate -- contrary to the claim that it never sleeps!
Vodafone Idea Ltd (VIL) CEO Ravinder Takkar did some plain speaking. In an analyst call after its quarterly results recently, Takkar said that the main stumbling block to raising fresh capital from investors is "pricing" - telecom tariffs, in other words. Nine months ago, the telecom company's board had cleared a proposal for raising Rs 25,000 crore from investors, after the promoters made it clear that they were not ready to pump in more money. But potential investors are concerned that without clarity on tariff hikes (there have been none for more than 18 months) they might just lose their money. The lack of visibility on raising tariffs has also impelled VIL to request the Department of Telecom (DoT) for a fresh reprieve by extending the two-year moratorium on paying its spectrum instalment of Rs 8,200 crore for another year till FY23.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is likely to reject the telecom regulator's proposal to charge operators holding excess spectrum at a rate determined on the basis of the ongoing 3G bids.
Given how the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai's) recommendations on 2G spectrum will hit telecom firms, it's not surprising that telecom stocks have plunged. Of course, the fun and games have only begun since it is up to Telecom Minister A Raja to decide whether to accept the recommendations, which ones to accept, and when to accept.
Bharti will have to deal with 15 different regulatory regimes in Africa as opposed to just one in India.
Amidst the controversial sale of stake by two new telecom operators, Swan and Unitech, at a huge premium, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Thursday recommended a three-year lock-in period for stake sale by companies, which have recently got licences, in a bid to prevent them from making windfall gains overnight.
Mobile television allows the consumers to watch live as well as pre-recorded television content on a mobile handset using a specialised mobile television broadcasting technology. Currently, only video clips can be downloaded on mobile handsets.
The operators are willing to accept auction of second generation spectrum beyond what has been contracted. According to them, they are allowed to have spectrum up to 10 Mhz.
Responding to queries from the Central Vigilance Commission amid allegations from political parties that Rs 50,000 crore (Rs 500 billion) was squandered in distribution of spectrum, telecom ministry said it had gone by the book and had done nothing wrong.
The department of telecommunication has so far considered applications for telecom licences that were received till September 25, 2007, and is yet to take a decision on those that came between September 25 and October 1. This had led to widespread speculation that the applications after September 26 would not be taken up at all and there would be a cap in that sense.
Dubai-headquartered Baer Capital Partners is planning to launch 2 India-centric hedge funds this year. The two funds - Beacon India Opportunities Fund with a corpus of $400 million and the $100 million Beacon India Growth Fund - will invest in listed companies. It is also planning an exclusive $100 million FMCG fund. These funds will invest across sectors including IT, pharma, FMCG, banks and auto. It has got approval from Sebi. These funds will not involve momentum trading.
