The government has suffered a loss of Rs 12,488.93 crore (Rs 124.88 billion) due to under-invoicing of gross revenue by six telecom companies including Reliance Communications, Vodafone and Bharti Airtel, the CAG said in a damning report on Friday.
Currently, MNP is only available within a state/circle.
The Department of Telecommunications has raised demand of around Rs 877.6 crore from Vodafone as spectrum charges for the period between 2008-09 and 2011-12, sources said.
The draft guidelines prepared by the Telecom Engineering Centre and under consideration of the department of telecommunication have suggested, among other things, that children below 16 years should be discouraged from using cellular phones.
'The failures of private businessmen have set back the process of market-oriented reform, though that is the only way forward,' argues T N Ninan.
BSNL on Wednesday denied allegations that it was blocking calls of private telecom operators like Reliance and Tatas, even as Trai asked all operators to maintain "status-quo" till the interconnection norms are announced.
Taking the government head on, four GSM mobile operators -- Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Spice -- have decided to "unitedly" approach the Delhi High Court against telecom tribunal TDSAT's interim order not to stay the spectrum allocation process.
Justice Rajiv Shakdher, referring to a Supreme Court order on a plea of Bharti Cellular Ltd in a similar case, asked the Department of Telecommunications not to take any coercive steps in pursuance of its notices issued to the telecom companies asking them to stop providing 3G services to mobile users in the circles for which they lacked licences.
Even as Left parties have demanded a review of the tax concessions provided to SEZs, the DoT has sought extension of excise duty exemptions to industrial units set up in telecom-specific SEZs.
India's telecom customer base is slowly inching towards the 10-crore (100 million) mark.
Bringing to the limelight some of the brilliant ideas and innovative projects from campuses is a unique initiative by Startup Village, India's first telecom incubator.
The party unanimously elected veteran Duraimurugan as general secretary and senior leader T R Baalu as treasurer. Former Telecom Minister A Raja and seasoned party leader K Ponmudi were elected as deputy general secretaries.
Top representatives of British telecom giant Vodafone are understood to have met senior officials of department of telecom in New Delhi, presumably to discuss issues related to its interest in acquiring Hutch Essar.
Government is close to finalising the guidelines for new entrants in the telecom sector, with a possibility of existing players getting priority in allocation of radio waves. The department of telecommunication has received about 300 applications from 30 companies for starting telecom services.
Softening its stand on reduction in access deficit charge, a levy paid by private operators to BSNL for rural telephony, the department of telecom on Tuesday said the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India must ensure that by doing so the revenues of
Telecom operators may face a penalty of minimum Rs 1000 for each unverified subscriber, Communication and IT Minister Dayanidhi Maran said in New Delhi on Wednesday.
The move will help telcos, including Reliance Jio, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular
UK-based Vodafone Group has ruled out selling its around 5 per cent stake in the holding company of Bharti Airtel in the near future as there is no buyer.
BSNL has launched location based services, including caller tracking facility, in North East India.
The proposal was put forward by Telecom and IT Minister Kapil Sibal who is on his four-day visit to Japan to attract investments in the Indian ICT sector.
In a strong attack on the telecom tribunal, Cellular Operators' Association of India (COAI) has argued in its petition to the Delhi High Court that the tribunal has erred in law and on facts in ignoring the three cardinal principles of grant of interim injunction.
If it happens, this would mean the largest spectrum auction in terms of amount with over 7,000 Mhz going up for sale across eight bands
TDSAT had stated no amount was payable till resolution of the disputes.
Client executives and relationship managers -- so far confined to the private sector and especially service providers -- have now made an entry into the tax department, too. Just like the relationship manager at your bank, the 'client executive' will coordinate all the tax requirements of a company, which could range from income tax to central excise and service tax.
Massive relief and rescue operations have been launched in Manipur where a strong 6.8 magnitude earthquake on Monday claimed nine lives, shattered buildings and caused panic.
An apex committee under DoT Secretary R Chandraskehar has been set up to oversee the required policy decisions and institutional framework for an alliance between the two public sector undertakings which have been incurring losses.
It challenged the Delhi High Court's order giving its nod to the Centre's decision holding the 3G roaming pact of the telecom major as illegal.
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.
Income will be higher as spectrum in 2,100-MHz band will also be auctioned
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India on Monday issued an addendum to its consultation paper on unified license regime and said it was ready to consider all suggestions in this regard.\n\n
In view of the foreign investment that would come into Bharti Airtel via the proposed share-swap and cash transaction arrangement, the finance ministry has asked DoT to ascertain more specific contents of the deal and advise the ministry on the same. In its letter, DEA has also said that the transaction would need to adhere to the sectoral cap as per the FDI policy as also specific telecom sector regulations.
The department of telecom is looking at various options to allocate 3G spectrum to players, including auction and allotment basis, in which new as well as foreign players would be allowed.
The department of telecom has issued letters of intent to BT for national and international long distance services for offering managed services to corporate customers having sites in India.
Bharti Airtel has sought quashing of the government's September 28 decision directing the service providers to stop providing intra-circle roaming services.
The Bombay High Court on Thursday stayed a new income tax demand of Rs 3,000 crore (Rs 30 billion) on Vodafone India Services in an alleged transfer-pricing case from 2010-11.
The controversial report of the Joint Parliamentary Committee, which gave a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the 2G spectrum scam saying he was "misled" by the then Telecom Minister A Raja, was on Tuesday submitted to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar.
Maybe Modi could ask a patriarch of the stature of the late G D Birla to flesh out the details of a new company to manage government land privatisation.
After Finance Minister P Chidambaram's indication the tax department would not act rashly on the issue, the company on Thursday said it was ready to discuss a solution with the government.
International telcos such as Russia's Sistema and Norway's Telenor and foreign investment funds such as KAIF Investments Mauritius and Capital Global Ltd (investors in Loop Telecom) have sent legal notices to the Indian government under the respective Bilateral Investment Promotion & Protection Agreement or Comprehensive Economic Cooperation Agreement.
The department of telecommunications is all set to urge the telecom companies to bring down domestic roaming charges between Re 1 to Rs 2 per minute.
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