A 42-year-old man from Thane, Maharashtra, was allegedly defrauded of 71.1 lakh by cyber criminals posing as CBI officers who threatened to implicate him in a false case.
TRAI Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti highlights the increasing importance of Artificial Intelligence in the design, management, and experience of telecom networks in India, noting its role in self-optimising networks, cybersecurity, and preparing for 6G technology.
India's total telephone subscriber base reached 1,321.31 million by the end of February 2026, marking a 0.56 per cent monthly growth, primarily fuelled by a significant surge in broadband adoption.
The CBI has registered separate cases related to digital arrest fraud targeting a former professor and a retired gynaecologist from Gujarat, who were defrauded of a total of Rs 30 crore.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said on Wednesday that instead of calculating charges for backhaul spectrum on a weighted-average formula based on the number of carriers a telco may have, a flat low rate should be applied.
A national rollout will take place after the pilot test in which SBI, PNB, Axis Bank, Bank of Maharashtra, Canara Bank, Kotak Mahindra Bank, IndusInd Bank, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank, Indian Overseas Bank and Punjab & Sind Bank are participating.
Trai has ordered BFSI firms to move service and transaction calls to the 1600 series from 2026 to reduce spam, financial fraud, and rising digital arrest scams.
Mumbai police have arrested six individuals from Gujarat, dismantling an interstate cyber fraud gang involved in digital arrest scams, including one where a businessman was defrauded of Rs 58 crore.
India's space regulator INSPACe has granted a license to Starlink to offer space-based internet services in the country. The authorization is valid for five years and subject to regulatory provisions and clearances.
Vi partners SpaceX-rival AST SpaceMobile for satcom service on smartphones
The company had announced similar pricing for Sri Lanka, where its application was in advanced stages of regulatory clearance.
A family in Noida was duped of over Rs 1 crore after they were kept under 'digital arrest' for five days by unknown people posing as government officials. The scammers threatened the family with arrest by making video calls and claiming to be investigating money laundering and other crimes. This is a new type of cyber fraud where the accused pose as law enforcement agency officials and use video calls to intimidate their victims.
'My job is to provide people with a bouquet of options they can choose from.'
Shares of Reliance Industries as well as Bharti Airtel began the trade on a positive note on Wednesday after the two firms announced their partnerships with Elon Musk's SpaceX for providing high-speed internet services in India. Bharti Airtel stock opened with a gain of 5.49 pc to hit a high of Rs 1,388.25 apiece on the National Stock Exchange (NSE). Soon, it pared all gains and traded 0.77 per cent lower to Rs 1,650.10 per piece.
A 39-year-old software engineer in Bengaluru lost Rs 11.8 crore to fraudsters who impersonated police officials and claimed his Aadhaar card was being misused for money laundering. The victim was threatened with "digital arrest" and tricked into transferring money to various bank accounts over a period of time, believing his family would be arrested if he didn't comply. The fraud occurred between November 25 and December 12, and police have registered a case under the IT Act and relevant sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) for cheating and cheating by impersonation. Further investigation is underway.
Losing subscribers for the fourth straight month, Reliance Jio witnessed 3.76 million users leave the telecom operator in October, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed on Monday. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel reversed three months of decline, and added 1.92 million users, indicating it has overcome the impact of the broad-based tariff hikes imposed by private sector telcos in July.
Continuing to push back against the stringent quality of service (QoS) norms brought in by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), telcos have informed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) that collection and submission of monthly and site-to-cell-level data should be eased, officials and industry sources said. In place since October last year, the QoS norms call for data for network availability, call drop, voice packet drop rate in uplink and downlink, among other parameters, to be collected at the cell level.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) may extend the deadline to whitelist URLs (Uniform Resource Locators), APKs (Android Package Kit), or OTT (Over The Top) links - through which it intends to curb their misuse -is likely to be extended by 30 days as only over 3,000 registered senders (businesses) have complied, officials indicated. According to Trai officials, over 3,000 registered senders have whitelisted more than 70,000 links, but many more (thousands of others) are yet to comply with the directive as the mandatory norms are set to come into effect from October 1.
Reliance Jio's major subscriber losses continued for the third straight month with 7.96 million users leaving the telecom operator in September, even as the state-owned BSNL stood out as the lone gainer, data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) showed on Thursday. Market leader Jio's subscriber loss has continued since July when the three private telecom operators - Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) - brought in a broad-based hike in tariffs.
In his complaint, the victim alleged that on September 12, he received a video call from a person claiming to be from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, who told him that his mobile number will be blocked.
Reliance Jio has urged telecom regulator Trai to come up with a revised paper on spectrum allocation for satellite communication alleging that it ignores the key point of ensuring level-playing field between satellite and terrestrial services. In a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman, Anil Kumar Lahoti, Reliance Jio has sought revision of the consultation paper on recommending rules for "terms and conditions for the assignment of spectrum for certain satellite-based commercial communication services".
Seventeen persons, including four hailing from Taiwan, were arrested by Ahmedabad Cyber Crime Branch for allegedly operating a nationwide 'digital arrest' racket, a Gujarat police official said on Monday.
New customer additions by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel pushed the Indian telecom subscriber base past 120.5 crore in June, according to a Trai report released on Tuesday. The wireless subscriber base grew marginally to over 117 crore and wireline connections in the country increased to 3.51 crore in June from 116.89 crore and 3.47 crore, respectively, in May, as per data released in Trai's subscriber report for June.
There will be a seven-day waiting period after the SIM swap or replacement for a mobile number to become eligible for porting, telecom regulator Trai said on Friday. The step has been taken to curb fraud taking place by using mobile phone numbers. "The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), on 14th March 2024, issued the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (Ninth Amendment) Regulations, 2024, which will come into force on July 1, 2024," the regulator said.
Buch, under a cloud over allegations of conflict of interest levelled by United States-based short-seller Hindenburg, was asked to appear before the PAC, which is reviewing the performance of the market regulator.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai's) latest push to review its existing spam regulations and expand the definition of "commercial communications" is driven by an urgent need to tighten controls on autodialers or robocallers, and bulk messaging, according to official sources. This move, they said, comes in response to a surge in complaints against unregistered telemarketers (UTMs), which soared to 750,000 in just the first half of 2024, underscoring the necessity for a comprehensive overhaul of the government's anti-spam measures. Last week, Trai released a consultation paper aimed at revisiting the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR-2018), the government's legal framework against spam.
The government is expected to outline a policy framework for artificial intelligence (AI) at the annual India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2024, beginning Tuesday, officials said. Apart from industry participation, the four-day event will feature booths from over 15 ministries showcasing how AI is being integrated into their departments.
After continuously bleeding subscribers for nearly two years, state-owned telecom services provider BSNL added 2.9 million users in July when its private-sector rivals raised tariffs by nearly 20 per cent. With BSNL keeping tariffs unchanged, many subscribers using entry-level plans shifted from Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi), said analysts.
The National Informatics Centre uses AI to automate document analysis and detect fraud in government departments.
Digital house arrest is a tactic where cybercriminals confine victims to their homes in order to scam them. The offenders generate fear by making audio or video calls, frequently posing as law enforcement officers using AI-generated voices or video technology.
'The idea is to frame the ToR quickly, so that Trai can begin its consultations with industry stakeholders.'
However, Rajya Sabha being a continuing chamber is not subject to dissolution, and bills introduced and pending in this House remain on the live register, unless withdrawn by the government.
Launched in March, it triggers re-verification of suspected fraudulent numbers. Failing re-verification, the number will be disconnected.
Vodafone Idea's (Vi's) subscriber loss reduced to a seven-month low in March, and alongside the company added 1.1 million broadband users after two months of net loss -- two things analysts have noted as key trends that need to be monitored. While Vi has been losing customers for more than two and a half years now, the churn reduced to below a million after five straight months in March, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) data has shown. "Jio's softer than usual subscriber growth in March, and VIL's slowing subscriber market share loss are key trends to keep an eye on going forward," global investment banking and financial services major UBS said in an analyst note.
'We operate in 16 countries already, and therefore adding the UK to it, and beginning a chapter in the European continent is the next step.'
National Commission concluded that false and baseless allegations had been made in the complaint to claim a highly exaggerated and atrocious amount of compensation.
In a recent letter to TRAI, Reddy claimed the Andhra Pradesh Cable TV Operators Association took these four channels off air due to alleged coercion by the TDP-led government in the state.
Reliance Jio added 34.7 lakh mobile subscribers in September, cementing its lead in the competitive telecom market, while Airtel's wireless subscriber tally rose by 13.2 lakh, according to monthly data put out by Trai. Vodafone Idea lost 7.5 lakh mobile subscribers during September, dragging its wireless user tally to 22.75 crore. Reliance Jio gained 34.75 lakh wireless subscribers in September, and its user base climbed to 44.92 crore, as per data by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
Numbers could be classified further into (140) marketing and (160 or 161) for service calls to easily identify the purpose of the call in the future.
...benefiting 350,000 persons. Also, Trai detected and blocked seven million mobile phone connections involved in cyber fraud and suspicious activities.
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