Even the CBI has filed a case against some unknown officials of the DoT for conniving with private companies for manipulation of licence terms and conditions.
Earlier this month, the department of telecommunication had said that MNP that will allow users to switch providers without changing their phone number was likely to be launched by June 30, 2010.
The move would allow mobile operators with relatively less number of subscribers to share spectrum with other players.
A senior Department of Telecom official said the proposal is there and a committee had suggested this. But he added that nothing has been finalised yet, therefore, no direction has been sent to the operators.
The Income Tax Department has slapped a Rs 1,067-crore demand notice on telecom giant Bharti Airtel for non-payment of TDS dues in the last four financial years in connection with its overseas operations, even as the company said it was fully compliant with all the provisions.
The telecom ministry has asked mobile operators to disconnect mobile phones without the IMEI number from December 1.
A bigger problem is that there is no clear definition of "call drops".
The Congress on Friday indicated that it will not seek any action against Telecom Minister A Raja after raids on the office of Department of Telecom (DoT) in connection with alleged irregularities in allocation of 2G spectrum to new players, saying the FIR only named officials.
The sharing agreement will provide more bandwidth for RJIL to provide its high-speed 4G services.
Dismantling a legacy of United Progressive Alliance rule, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has abolished all the 30 GoMs and EGoMs and told ministries and departments to take decisions on pending matters.
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.
The operator was directed to pay the spectrum charges based on the combined GSM and CDMA spectrum allocated, which otherwise were to be charged separately, it argued.
The department of telecommunication has decided that the existing variable licence fee structure for telecom operators should be replaced with a uniform one. An departmental note suggests a uniform licence fee of 8.5 per cent for all types of services.
The DoT is conducting a special audit on companies that have multiple licences -- mobile, international long distance, domestic long distance and internet service provider among others. Contractor, Nayak & Kishnadwala has been appointed to examine the books of Bharti Airtel, while S K Mehta & Co will check Vodafone-Essar's accounts. Varma & Varma has been appointed as auditors for Tata Teleservices, while Chhajed & Doshi will examine the books of Idea Cellular.
The government announced a Rs 1000-crore (Rs 10-billion) project to convert wireless operations of defence services on Optical Fibre Cable, a move that is estimated to release 45 MHz of spectrum.
The department, according to officials, has reportedly traced instances of tax evasion by various Telecom firms that have been named by the CBI and the ED in their charge sheets.
Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Reliance Jiosubmitted applications.
The lobby group of CDMA mobile players like the Reliance Communications and the Tatas has accused that the government was favouring the GSM players while deciding the criteria for spectrum allocation and in its pricing.
This comes on the heels of the department of telecom appointing private auditors to look into the books of telcos after it was detected that some of the operators were diverting revenues in segments which attracted lower licence fee.
The move is significant as it would extend the power of CAG -- set up to audit central and state government departments as well as PSUs -- to private sector companies.
As per the initial version of the Unified Licence on August 2, DoT had exempted Internet services revenue from adjusted gross revenue -- part of telecom company's earnings on which annual licence fee is levied.
Phones from the grey market can now land you in trouble as telecom operators have started informing subscribers that services to cellphones without a valid international mobile equipment identity number will soon be disconnected.
Telecom Secretary J S Deepak has resolved the toughest issues facing the sector, but his real test will be in delivering on the govt's Digital India dream
Spectrum trading will happen in 9 circles.
A Central Bureau of Investigation officer, who was part of the probe team investigating the 2G spectrum scam, on Thursday denied in a Delhi court that A Raja's erstwhile private secretary R K Chandolia was falsely implicated in the case as he had refused to depose against the former telecom minister.
Government expects to fetch at least Rs 64,840 crore
During the first six months (up to the second quarter of the current fiscal) of 2009-10, the department of telecommunication has already collected Rs 4,112.30 crore (Rs 41.12 billion), minister of state for telecom and IT Gurudas Kamat said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.
There was an under reporting of Rs 1000 crore (Rs 10 billion) to Rs 1500 crore (Rs 15 billion) by the telecom firms, to avoid payment of licence fee, and the government may have lost about Rs 250 crore (Rs 2.5 billion) because of this, telecom minister A Raja said during Question Hour.
FinMin had, recently, notified changes in FDI rules that made prior approval of the government mandatory for foreign investments from countries that share a land border with India. Hong Kong was ranked 14th on the list of countries with FDI flows to India, contributing $4.2 billion between April 2000 and December 2019, the data from DPIIT shows. India received FDI worth $2.34 billion from China in the same period.
India's tax officials, long the scourge of foreign investors, are under government pressure to avoid aggressive claims against overseas funds.
The Department of Commerce alleged that Huawei was engaged in activities that are contrary to US national security or foreign policy interest.
In the first secretary-level appointments by the Narendra Modi government, Rakesh Garg was on Sunday named the new telecom secretary while Jugal Kishore Mohapatra is to be secretary in the fertilizers ministry.
Operators continued aggressive bidding in 900 MHz band
The move gains importance after two new telecom players -- Swan and Unitech -- sold stakes to foreign companies at high premiums after the allocation of spectrum. The Left parties had also accused Telecom Minister A Raja of underselling spectrum that cost the national exchequer around Rs 60,000 crore (Rs 600 billion).
A consummate deal-maker, the former Aircel boss raked in the moolah in many, but lost a packet in several others.
Reliance Infocomm violated the licence conditions by evading levy through illegally routing international calls as local ones, the government on Monday told the telecom tribunal.
The commission sent back the proposal of unrestricted internet telephony, seeking more clarity on how it would function, highly placed source said.
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