The move would allow mobile operators with relatively less number of subscribers to share spectrum with other players.
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.
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 telecom ministry has asked mobile operators to disconnect mobile phones without the IMEI number from December 1.
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 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.
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
Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, RCom, Reliance Jiosubmitted applications.
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.
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.
Spectrum trading will happen in 9 circles.
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 Odisha government imposed a curfew-like shutdown in three hotspot districts of Balasore, Bhadrak and Jajpur from 10 pm Thursday, to conduct active surveillance and contact-tracing.
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.
A consummate deal-maker, the former Aircel boss raked in the moolah in many, but lost a packet in several others.
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 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.
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.
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.
India's tax officials, long the scourge of foreign investors, are under government pressure to avoid aggressive claims against overseas funds.
Government expects to fetch at least Rs 64,840 crore
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
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.
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).
Says extreme secrecy is maintained and utmost care and precaution is taken in matter of interception as it affects privacy of citizens
The Central Bureau India (CBI) on Monday alleged before a special court that Essar Group of companies had created a "corporate veil".
DoT officials said instructions have been issued to Idea and Vodafone to provide the requisite information to IB at the earliest.
The big beneficiaries of this move will be the big three -- Bharti, Vodafone and Idea.
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.
SC raised questions over the government's decision ordering mandatory seeding of mobile numbers with Aadhaar.
The commission sent back the proposal of unrestricted internet telephony, seeking more clarity on how it would function, highly placed source said.
The government has proposed a penalty of over Rs 41 crore (Rs 410 million) on Tatas, Rs 31 crore (Rs 310 million) on Airtel and Rs 19.65 crore (Rs 196.5 million) on RCom and others, totalling Rs 135.60 crore (Rs 1.35 billion), for not rolling out network on time
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