The CBI on Thursday conducted searches in the offices of the wireless planning cell, the department responsible for allocating spectrum, and the office of deputy director general (access services) at the ministry headquarters in New Delhi.
The government on Monday asserted that there was no loss to the exchequer due to allocation of 2G spectrum to some telecom companies in 2008.
Janata Party president Subramanian Swamy on Tuesday approached the Delhi high court seeking its directions to the prime minister to take a decision on granting sanction to prosecute Telecom Minister A Raja for his alleged involvement in 2G spectrum allocation scam.
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.
A day after the Supreme Court sought his response to a prayer for tracking the progress of the CBI probe into the alleged spectrum scam, Telecom Minister A Raja on Tuesday termed the move as "politically motivated."
The Apex Court has asked the minister and the two agencies to respond to the notice within the next ten days.
Rajya Sabha was briefly adjourned on Tuesday following an uproar by AIADMK over Telecom Minister A Raja's role in Second Generation or 2G spectrum allocation that allegedly led to heavy loss of revenue to the government.
Earlier in the day, Cabinet secretary K M Chandrasekhar, who was heading the high-level committee to monitor vacation of spectrum by the defence forces, said revenues would get preference to timing for 3G auction.
Party insiders concede statements of the Raja kind have the potential to hurt the DMK's electoral chances in closely-fought seats in 2024, observes N Sathiya Moorthy.
Amid a continuing legal battle between the Ambani brothers over gas supply, the elder of the two, Mukesh Ambani, is believed to have met Law Minister Veerappa Moily.
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).
The government has ruled out banning Blackberry services in India. This was stated by the telecom secretary in New Delhi on Friday.Security agencies had said that they should have access to data that are being encrypted by services like BlackBerry on mobile phones and then decrypted when the phone reaches its destination. The government had cited security concerns as it could not monitor the content on RIM's servers, which were located in Canada and other foreign locations.
Minister of state for telecom Sachin Pilot said state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited will deploy 10,000 mobile towers in rural areas by March 2010 and another 15,000 by March, 2011.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday responded to allegations of corruption against Telecom Minister A Raja over sale of licences in 2008, by promising to take action if corruption was proved 'at any level'.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday said that although there is a huge gap in the prices of spectrum for 2G and 3G services, the whole issue needs to be seen in proper perspective.
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.
On a visit to New Delhi a year after UPA-II assumed office, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi on Sunday backed Telecom Minister A Raja and virtually ruled out the demand of the Opposition for his resignation over the 2G spectrum controversy.
The government has projected to garner up to Rs 35,000 crore (Rs 350 billion) from sale of radiowaves, mainly 3G spectrum, to telecom operators in the current financial year.
The defence ministry has decided to release only that 3G spectrum that is to be auctioned and that too in phases. In fact, the armed forces have not released spectrum already in use as envisaged in their agreement with department of telecommunication.
The Telecom Commission, the policy-making wing of the DoT, will soon take up the issue of divestment in state-run BSNL, Telecom Minister A Raja said on Wednesday.
Within hours of going on indefinite strike, the employee unions of BSNL on Tuesday called off the protest after the government assured that the issue of disinvestment in the telecom PSU will be referred to a Group of Ministers.
The government hopes to raise from the ongoing 3G spectrum auction more than Rs 30,000-35,000 crore (Rs 300-350 billion), an amount estimated earlier, Telecom Minister A Raja said.
"There has been interest from various foreign companies in the planned 3G auction," telecom minister A Raja told reporters in Geneva, exuding confidence that the auction of 3G and Wi-Max spectrum would generate at least Rs 25,000 crore (Rs 250 billion) of revenue for the Indian government.
Four new players will be given spectrum along with one existing operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam or Mahanagar Telephone Nigam - in their respective circles.
This has to be one of the most blatant tricks Raja is pulling off.
Industrialist Anil Ambani on Wednesday met key ministers and senior government officials in New delhi, a day after he accused the Union oil ministry of helping the Mukesh Ambani-run RIL renege its commitment on supplying gas to his group firm.
The controversy over a minister of Dr Manmohan Singh's Cabinet directly influencing a judge of the Madras High Court reached its peak when the Prime Minister's Office, Chief Justice of India and principal opposition party Bharatiya Janata Party took the matter to its logical conclusion.
The Department of Telecommunications is scheduled to auction 3G spectrum starting January 14.
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.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee met telecom minister A Raja and defence minister A K Antony on Monday in an effort to resolve the issue, highly placed sources said, adding that there was no consensus on the spectrum slots to be auctioned.
A common carrier policy, as in the petroleum sector, is worth looking at.
"I requested the operators, the termination charge can come down by 2010 and accordingly tariffs can be reduced," the minister told reporters after meeting with CEOs of telecom companies in New Delhi.
A telcom operator said since there is a CBI investigation over alleged irregularties in the license and spectrum allotment going on, the minister may try to win over the industry by asking them not to be perturbed over the development and focus on operations and customers.
Currently, USO fund administrator invites bid from interested telcos for setting up infrastructure in rural areas and the process is time consuming.
A group of officials from the National Treasury and the South African Reserve Bank ) are in India to meet officials from the finance ministry, Reserve Bank and market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India to discuss regulatory matters related to the deal.
The government on Wednesday said it will not allocate any spectrum to existing operators, license holders and new applicants till a scientific evaluation was done by the Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC)."There is scarcity of spectrum and number of applicants are much more than actually can be accommodated... Applications must be synchronised by a legal process... We have referred the matter to Law Ministry to get Solicitor General's views on the matter," Telecom Minister A Ra
In what could be a relief to mobile operators and lakhs of subscribers, the government on Friday said the security issue related to Blackberry services would be resolved within a week."Most of the security issues have been resolved to the satisfaction of the security agencies," Telecom Minister A Raja said.
Paving the way for unleashing of next generation mobile telephony, the government on Friday fixed reserve price of Rs 4040 crore (Rs 40.4 billion) for auction of 3G spectrum. The move would help it garner at least Rs 32,320 crore (Rs 323.2 billion).
In an interview to PTI, Raja said his ministry would keep a vigil on these players and on their plans to start operations (50 per cent in the first year of spectrum allotment). Raja's assertion has come at a time when he is faced with criticism following the high-value stake-sale of two new telcos -- Unitech Wireless and Swan Telecom -- who are yet to start services.
The CDMA and GSM operators in the country are at loggerheads once again, this time over the implementation of mobile number portability.
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